


10 Days in "Love"

by kindredspiritsxo



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Fake Dating, Fake/Pretend Relationship, School Trip, past elos, past rini, senior trip across europe!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:00:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 48,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28708575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kindredspiritsxo/pseuds/kindredspiritsxo
Summary: It was almost the end of high school and nobody had it figured out. Especially Ricky Bowen. His parents had recently divorced, he had no idea what he's doing for college, his longtime girlfriend dumped him the month before and now he's been replaced by one of the most popular guys in school.To make matters worse, he leaves for Europe in two days for his senior trip. The same senior trip that said ex-girlfriend and her new boyfriend were going on. So, Ricky did what any desperate teenage boy would do to try and get his girlfriend back: he devised a plan. A plan that included the help of Gina Porter and playing pretend for 10 days.
Relationships: E.J. Caswell & Kourtney, Ricky Bowen & Gina Porter, Ricky Bowen/Gina Porter
Comments: 40
Kudos: 145





	1. Ricky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! i'm back with another fic bc i am a sUcker for fake dating.... 
> 
> a reminder that this fic is set in an alternate universe where ricky never joined the musical and rini never broke up. anyways i don't have to much to say but i hope you enjoy!!

The rain slammed onto the gravel outside of Redonovich’s Pizza Parlor on a night in late May, and it was audible for everyone inside the building. 

Inside sat Ricky Bowen, who was leaning over the counter with his head tucked in his arms with a groan escaping past his lips. In front of him stood his best friend behind the counter, Big Red, who had just slid a slice of three meat pizza beside him. 

“You know for someone that’s going to Europe in two days with his friends, you sound depressed as hell.” Howie, one of Big Red’s co-workers chimed in from the back of the kitchen.

Ricky lifted his head, sending a glare in Howie’s direction, “Thanks for reminding me.”

“You’re going to scare away all the customers.”

Ricky looked around the parlor, not seeing a single customer in sight. It was a Tuesday night, just before close, so there wasn’t usually anyone but whoever was closing that night (and Ricky, a loyal attendee of the pizza place). 

“Howie’s just jealous he doesn’t get as great of a senior trip as we do.” Big Red whispered, loud enough for Howie to hear, “his class is going to New York for three days.” 

“Well I get to watch some Broadway shows, so who’s the real winner here?” Howie mumbled to himself as he cleaned the brick-oven.

Both Ricky and Red simultaneously decided to ignore Big Red’s annoying co-worker.

“God, I can’t believe we leave for Europe in two days.” Ricky sighed audibly, picking at the first of his pizza.

“Dude, for real, you need to lighten up. We’re going to be in Europe for ten days. Ten days!” The redhead exclaimed. “We get to eat _real_ pizza, go to bars if we really want to, and maybe meet some European girls and guys…”

Ricky stared up at Big Red, knowing what he was trying to get at, “You had me at pizza. Lost me at meeting new people.”

He rolled his eyes, “I’m sorry Ricky but Nini broke up with you over a month ago and the best way to get over her is this trip and some hot European hook up.”

“ _Yeah,_ but I think you’re forgetting that Nini is also going on this trip. With Elias nonetheless.”

“Ah, _Elias_.” Red hummed, pausing, “If she’s moving on with Elias, don’t you think you should move on too?”

“That’s just the thing. Of course I wanted her back before, but now that she’s with someone else it makes me want her even more.” Ricky huffed, leaning back in her chair.

“I heard Nini talking to Miss Jenn and she was basically pleading for her to put Elias in her group for the trip.”

“Shit, really?” Ricky groaned. “God help me if I’m in the same group as them for this trip. When do we even find out what group we’re in anyway?”

“I think tomorrow.”

“Great.” 

“At least we’re rooming together. Imagine if you had to room with EJ or Elias. Now that’d be entertaining.”

“You like seeing me suffer, don’t you?”

“I mean, it would be kinda funny.”

Ricky sneered at his best friend and then averted his eyes down to his half-eaten pizza. 

“You better eat it, Bowen.” Howie said, walking towards the front counter and throwing his dishrag onto his shoulder. 

“I was going to.” 

Howie quirked his eyebrows, “Sure you were.”

Ricky picked up his pizza and took a huge bite out of it, then smiled at Howie. 

Howie rolled his eyes and then turned to Red, “You going to clean or what?”

The redhead put a hand over his chest, “I was trying to cheer my dear best friend and his broken heart up.”

Howie stared at Big Red and then his eyes moved to Ricky, who was slumped in his seat and sadly chewing his pizza. Howie cleared his throat, “How much do you want this Mimi girl back, Bowen?”

Ricky quickly looked up at Howie, halfway through chewing his crust, “It’s–” he began through a mouthful of food, and quickly swallowed, “Nini.”

“Right.” Howie nodded his head, clearly not caring about the name he chose being incorrect. “How much do you want her back?”

The curly haired boy grabbed his napkin to wipe his mouth, “A lot. I can't lose what we had.”

Howie paused and leaned on the counter, “How long were you two together?”

“Almost three years.”

“Why’d she break up with you?” Howie inquired.

“Do you always ask so many questions?” 

“Do you want my advice or not?” 

Ricky frowned, crossing his arms, “She said that she doesn’t want a relationship going into college and we just wouldn’t work long distance. Which still doesn’t make any fucking sense because she’s with Elias now.”

“Well,” Howie started, “if the two of you were together for that long and you had something good, then there’s no way that she could have gotten over you that quick. My guess is that being with this other guy is a way to get over you.”

Ricky sat up straight in his seat, “What do you think I should do?”

Howie looked over at Big Red, then back to Ricky, “Give her a taste of her own medicine. Find someone on your trip who is willing enough to pretend to like your annoying ass and Mimi will come crawling back to you.”

“You want someone to pretend to like Ricky?” Big Red laughed out loud, covering his mouth with his hand. 

“Yeah, you want someone to pretend to _like me?”_ Ricky repeated what his best friend said.

“That is what I said.” Howie shrugged.

“Would that seriously work?” 

“It definitely could.” Howie replied nonchalantly, lifting himself up from the counter and heading back to the kitchen.

Ricky’s lips parted and he looked back up at Big Red, who’s eyes were wide. It’s like the two of them had just been told that ghosts were real. 

“Dude…” Ricky finally said after a few moments, “do you think I should?”

Big Red looked back at Howie in the kitchen then leaned over the counter to whisper, “Well, it _is_ a good idea.” 

“Heard that!” Howie yelled from the kitchen.

“Heard that.” Big Red mimicked. 

Ricky laughed lightly, then looking down at his now empty plate, “I don’t know, man, who would want to spend their entire senior trip to _Europe_ fake dating me?”

“There’s gotta be someone. I mean I totally would, but Nini knows that we’d never get together.”

The brunette stifled a laugh, “I could never hold your hand, Red, I’m sorry.” 

“And I could never hold yours. See? We wouldn’t work.” He stated. “It has to be someone that Nini would never expect you to be with.”

Ricky leaned back in his seat.

“Carlos? Tyler from government class? If you paid him a good sum of money–”

“I’m not paying Tyler from government class to be my fake-boyfriend. And Carlos? There’s no way. Didn’t he and EJ break up a few months ago?” Ricky continued to rack his brain for people who would consider dating him.

“What about Steph Rodriguez? Rico P? Molly Cooper?” Big Red continued rattling off names, “…James, maybe even Ashlyn Caswell if you explained your situation?” 

Ricky groaned, “No, Ashlyn’s too nice I can’t make her do that. And everyone else is a hard no.”

“Well shouldn't it be someone who’s in your group? So it seems like you two are spending all of your time together on the trip?” 

“Shit, you’re right. I have to see who’s in my group in the morning.”

Suddenly, Ricky’s phone buzzed on the counter. He picked it up and noticed a text message from his dad: 

**_Be home by 1:30. Night!_ **

He looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost 12:30. He hadn’t realized how much time had gone by since he arrived at the shop.

“I should probably get going soon.”

“I gotta lock up.” Big Red lifted himself from the counter, and turned to see Howie putting his hoodie on. “Leaving already?”

Howie laughed lightly, “I did pretty much everything while the two of you were plotting your fake-dating scheme.”

Big Red looked around surprised, “Oh. Well, thanks. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. I work 3-9.” He nodded, then turned to Ricky, “Will I have the pleasure of seeing you tomorrow?”

Ricky shrugged and sent him a grin, “Depends if you want the company, Martin.”

Howie was halfway out the door, a small smile on his lips, “Well if I don’t see you, make sure your plan doesn’t blow up in your face.”

━━━━━━

Ricky spent the whole night tossing and turning, contemplating this idea of potentially fake-dating someone in order to get Nini back. 

Was it a good idea? _No. Yes. Kind of?_

Could it work? _Maybe._

Could it backfire in some way? _Most likely._

But the whole night, on top of this idea of fake-dating somebody, the only thing that Ricky could think about is Nini and Elias. 

Elias Scott is someone straight out of an early 2000s romantic comedy. He’s got it all; an obnoxiously perfect face, the seemingly perfect family life, is the co-captain of the water polo _and_ soccer teams, is at the top of his class, and he has Nini. _His_ Nini. _Ricky’s_ Nini. 

Ricky couldn’t see himself with anybody but Nini Salazar-Roberts. For Ricky, no matter what, it has always been Nini. They met in the third grade when Ricky would chase her around the playground, constantly teasing her and trying to get her attention in any way. Ever since the third grade, they were inseparable. 

They slept over at each other’s houses, went on vacations with each other’s families and spent almost every single day together for years on end. It wasn’t until their sophomore year of high school that Ricky gained the courage to ask her to East High’s homecoming dance. 

The rest was history. Until Nini broke it off a month before they graduated high school. 

So there he was, staring up at the ceiling for what seems like the thousandth time trying to figure out what went wrong with their relationship. What went wrong with him? And what’s right with Elias?

He’s stared up at his ceiling too many times. This time Ricky spent his time conjuring up a plan to play pretend. And hopefully there was someone willing to play along with him. 

It is a bit selfish to ask someone to spend their entire senior trip traveling across Europe pretending to be with him. It is a bit presumptuous to assume that Nini will actually want him back. But, maybe, just maybe it could all be worth it.

Before he knew it, Ricky was being abruptly woken up by his alarm at 6:30. The loud beeping was enough to make Ricky want to throw his phone out the window, so he slammed his finger down on the “Stop Alarm” button and audibly groaned.

He rubbed his eyes and sat up, looking around his room and trying to figure out why on earth he didn’t fall asleep sooner. For one, he left for London tomorrow morning at 11am and he had a 15 hour flight ahead of him. And now he has to go to school.

Ricky was not a morning person. At all. Most days, his dad had to drag him out of his bed to get him to even go to school. And even when his dad dragged him out of bed, he was still late for school. 

He grabbed his phone and sighed. He had a text from Big Red:

**_Pick me up? Dad needs to take the car in :/ Pls u owe me!_ **

**_Also if u want to find someone to date you today’s the day!_ **

Ricky sent him a quick text back and said he’d be there in 15 minutes. He quickly got up, went to the bathroom and freshened up for the day. Once he was done, he grabbed a hoodie and threw on his jeans. 

He was out the door in five minutes and got to his best friend’s house within ten minutes. When he pulled up, Big Red was sitting on his porch steps waiting for Ricky.

He got into the car, stepping on a heap of wrappers and empty pop-cans on the floor of the passenger seat. Ricky didn't have time to clean. Big Red shut the door and threw his skateboard in the backseat, “Dude, you’re actually on time. I’m proud of you.”

Ricky laughed lightly, “Yeah I don’t think it’ll ever happen again.” 

He pulled out of Red’s driveway and headed for the school, “So your dad had to take your car into the shop again?”

Big Red sighed, “Yeah, she’s still not doing good. Making all these weird clunking noises when I'm in reverse and now the back window won’t roll back up. So that’s great. Ugh, I'll probably have to use my new paycheck on repairs.”

Ricky couldn't remember a time where his best friend didn't have car problems.

He snorted, “Dude, you _gotta_ get a new car.”

“Do I look like I’m made of money?” 

“Well I know where a lot of your money is going and it’s not into your car.”

“Rick, without me you’d be paying for your own weed.” 

“And I’m so very thankful for you, Big Red Redonovich the Third.”

The redhead hummed, “That’s what I like to hear.”

The two sat in comfortable silence on their way to school and before they knew it, Ricky pulled into the parking lot of East High.

“Hey, did you decide if you’re going to go through with the plan?” Big Red asked as Ricky pulled into a parking spot.

Ricky parked the car and pulled the keys from the ignition and sighed, “I’m still thinking about it. I feel like I should see who’s in my group first, you know?”

Big Red nodded his head, “Yeah. Good idea. I wonder what group I’m in.”

The two boys got out of the car and headed for the entrance of the school. 

“Bro, I know I already said this, but if I’m in Nini’s group I might just have to–”

“Dude, you’re not going to be in her group. There’s probably 8 groups in total so there’s a slim chance that that will happen.”

“Yeah. You’re right. I shouldn’t be freaking out.”

The two of them walked through the school doors and were met with a bunch of students swarming the halls as usual. They headed for their lockers which happen to be in close vicinity to each other and as they walked someone stopped them.

“Hey guys!” Ashlyn Caswell’s voice cut through their conversation.

They stopped and turned to her.

“Hey Ashlyn.” Big Red smiled warmly.

“Hey.” Ricky greeted.

“Did you guys see the list of groups for the trip yet?” Ashlyn smiled sweetly up at them.

The boys exchanged glances and Ricky turned to her, “No, we didn’t realize that they’d be out before first period.” 

“Well, they’re posted outside of Miss Jenn’s office just so you guys know.”

“Thanks, Ashlyn! See you in physics?” Big Red smiled. 

“Yeah, definitely! See you later, Ricky.” 

They all said their goodbyes and the two boys almost ran to Miss Jenn’s office to see who they’d be spending most of their senior trip with. 

There was a small crowd of people in their grade around the papers posted on the wall and Ricky squeezed his way through them to see who he was paired with.

Both Ricky and Big Red stared at the sheets of paper taped on the wall.

GROUP 3

Jasmine Wright

Ashlyn Caswell

EJ Caswell

Kourtney Greene

Big Red Redonovich

GROUP 5

Nini Salazar-Roberts

Elias Scott

Gina Porter

Carlos Rodriguez

Ricky Bowen

“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Ricky muttered under his breath.

“I’m with Ashlyn and EJ! _Sick!_ ” Big Red exclaimed at the same time as Ricky. Immediately Big Red’s eyes wandered down to Group 5 and his mouth made a great big “O” shape.

“This could not be worse, Red.” Ricky tore his eyes from the paper and started to walk down the hallway with his best friend trailing behind him. 

“I cannot watch Nini and Elias being all cuddly and cute doing all the shit we used to do for ten fucking days, man. I can’t–I can’t do it.” He was being a little too loud, but honestly he didn’t care if the whole school could hear him. 

“Did you forget about the plan?” Big Red attempted to reassure him.

Ricky stopped in the middle of the hallway, sighing loudly, “The plan is clearly not going to work! My only two options are Carlos and there’s no way that’s happening and—”

“and Gina Porter!” Big Red chimed in.

“ _Gina Porter?_ Dude, _no_ way! How is she even going on the senior trip? Isn’t she a junior?”

Big Red laughed, “I’m pretty sure she’s graduating early.”

“Oh.” Ricky said. “Well, there’s still no way in hell that I’m going to convince her to do this for me. And plus, Nini _hates_ Gina!”

“Ricky, that’s perfect! It would drive Nini absolutely nuts if she thought that you and Gina were actually a thing.” He said. Big Red looked around to see if anyone was listening, “I think she has a little thing for Elias too. It’s a win-win. You get Nini’s attention and maybe Gina could get Elias’ attention.”

Ricky paused, “ _Gina Porter_ has a crush on _Elias Scott?_ How do you even know that?”

“I’m good friends with Ashlyn, right? And Gina’s basically family to the Caswells so I know a few things.”

“How did I not know–when did you become best friends with Ashlyn?”

“Dude, I think you’re drifting from the point. Try to talk to Gina… she might be your only hope.”

Ricky ran his fingers through his hair and after a moment of silence let out a sigh, “Shit. Fine.”

“Alright, I gotta get to class, I’ll see you later. Keep me updated, alright?”

“Yeah, I’ll text you.” 

━━━━━━

Ricky spent the duration of the day trying to figure out how he could possibly convince Gina Porter to do this big favor for him. He really didn’t know much about her, besides what Nini had told him about her in the past. She was (in Nini’s words) someone “who’s intense and hostile and clearly thinks she’s better than you in every way.”

He recalled all of the times Nini would get out of musical rehearsal clearly agitated by something Gina had said to her that day or how “annoyingly perfect” Gina was in rehearsal that day. He remembered his envious Nini was of Gina’s dancing and her ability to act. 

All of these thoughts of Gina clouded his head until it was finally the end of the day. Once he was able to leave his 6th period class, Ricky nervously fumbled with the pen in his hand as he walked through the halls to find Gina. He had no idea how he was going to even present this idea to her. And he was in deep shit if she’ll say no. 

He spotted Ashlyn in the hall and quickly ran up to her, “Hey Ashlyn, by any chance do you know where Gina’s locker is?”

“Gina Porter?” Ashlyn asked in a surprised tone.

“Yes, Gina Porter.”

“Uh, her locker is right by room 106. Why do you as–” Ashlyn started but Ricky cut her off.

“Thanks so much Ashlyn!” He quickly darted off in the direction of room 106.

Anxiety started to flood through his veins as he got closer and closer to room 106 and finally he made it to that room. He looked around the hall full of students until he spotted the familiar face none other known as Gina Porter. 

She stood at her locker, stuffing her books away and throwing a few things into her book bag. Ricky chewed on his lower lip as his legs guided his body towards her locker. He leaned himself against the locker next to hers and waited until she closed her door to notice him.

After a few moments, she shut her locker door and was met face to face with Ricky. Her eyebrows furrowed at the sight of him, “Can I help you?”

Ricky quickly stood up, “Uh, hi, hey. I’m Ricky. Ricky Bowen.”

Gina raised her eyebrows, “I know who you are.”

“Oh. Well, uh, I don’t know if you know this but we’re in a group together for our trip. The senior trip…”

Gina nodded her head slowly, “Yeah, uh, I did see that.”

Ricky swallowed nervously. He didn’t realize that Gina was this intense. 

“Right. Of course you already saw.”

“Listen, is this conversation going somewhere? I have somewhere to be.” Gina threw her backpack over her shoulder.

“Yes! Yes, this conversation is very much going somewhere.” Ricky began, and then he paused, staring at the girl in front of him for a moment, “Listen. I need your help.”

“You need my help?” Gina repeated, her tone laced with confusion.

“Yes. I need your help.” He sighed. “I don’t know if you know but I used to date Nini and she, uh, dumped me a month ago. Somehow she’s already moved on with Elias Scott and somehow we both got put in this group with them for the trip.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not watch them be on their honeymoon all through Europe. It sounds repulsing.”

Gina shifted on her feet, “I wasn’t planning on paying attention to anyone on the trip.”

Ricky sighed, “Listen, I heard from a little birdie that you have a thing for Elias.”

Gina’s face softened for a moment, “Who told you that?”

Ricky shrugged, “That’s beside the point. Gina, I can’t tell you how bad it hurts for me to see Nini with him and if you actually do have some sort of a crush on Elias it might bother you too. And I really want to get Nini back. I haven’t been able to sleep for the past month because of how bad I miss her and it sucks—it really fucking sucks.”

Gina didn’t say much of anything, so Ricky took that as a cue to go on.

“Gina, I know this is a bit selfish and very out of the blue especially since we leave tomorrow but,” he paused and let out a shaky breath, “would you, maybe, want to pretend to like me so I can get Nini back?”

That sounded much stupider coming out of his mouth.

Gina’s lips parted and clearly she was at a loss of words.

Ricky wanted to disappear. He can’t believe he actually asked her. The boy ran his hand through his hair, “Shit, I mean, maybe you could even get Elias’ attention if you wanted by doing this… it’s a win-win.”

Gina’s lips curved up slightly and a small laugh escaped her lips, “You’re kidding, right?”

Ricky stared back at her, “No, why would I be kidding?”

“You want me to pretend to like you in order for you to get your ex-girlfriend back who is clearly in a happy relationship?” Gina crossed her arms, raising her eyebrows.

“God, do you have to make it sound like that? You’re missing the part where we were together for three years and that I miss her like hell.” Ricky rocked on his heels nervously.

She scoffed, shaking her head, “No. I’m not spending my whole trip across Europe trying to fix your failed relationship. Sorry, Bowen.”

He frowned watching her start to walk away.

“Wait, Gina, come on! You’re forgetting the part where I can help you get with Elias.” He followed her like a puppy until she stopped in the middle of the hallway.

“Look, even if I did have a small crush on him doesn’t take away from the fact that he’s in a happy relationship. Just give it up.”

Ricky groaned and remembered what Howie had said the night before, “I know Nini like the back of my hand. She’s most likely with him just to get over me, alright? That means Elias is into her a lot more than she is him.”

Gina glared at him for a moment, “I said no. Find someone else to play pretend with you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Ricky sighed in defeat as he watched Gina Porter walk down the hallway and out the front entrance of the school. 


	2. Gina

Gina told herself that she wasn’t going to play Ricky Bowen’s little game. 

She barely even knew him. She shared a few classes with him over the two years she spent at East High but only knew what she heard was said of him. She knew that he dated Nini for a while. She also knew he was the typical skater boy who wasn’t really into school and constantly got high after school behind the bleachers. 

There was nothing in his game for her, well, except for maybe getting a little closer to Elias Scott. But even then, Gina genuinely didn’t even want to get close to Elias. For one, high school was ending in the matter of two weeks before everyone goes their separate ways and never sees each other again. It seemed almost useless.

Her mind drifted to her time in the school's productions of High School Musical and Beauty and the Beast. Nini had gotten the lead in HSM and Kourtney Greene had gotten the lead in Beauty and the Beast. Not that they didn’t deserve the leads, but Gina had always hoped to get the lead in both productions. 

She vaguely remembered how Nini was somewhat unprofessional during her time as Gabriella in the school musical. She was upset with the last minute changes of roles in which Troy’s understudy, who happened to be Elias Scott, had to go on with her. But, still, she was granted all the praise and Ricky Bowen was right there in the front row. 

She couldn’t understand how someone like Nini Salazar-Roberts was with someone like Elias. Elias was generous, bright, and compellingly charming and could get anyone he wanted in the school. His bright blue eyes and freckled cheeks are enough to make even Gina Porter swoon. She really didn’t mind Nini—hell, she barely paid any mind to her at all—but what did she have that _both_ Elias and Ricky fell for? 

She was kind of nice, pretty, had a beautiful voice, and could decently act. But what else did she really have going for her?

Gina decided to push all of these thoughts out of her head once she finished her last minute packing for her trip the next day. She zipped up her suitcase, closed her carry-on bag and placed them together neatly by her bedroom door. 

After a few moments, she heard a knock on her door before Ashlyn emerged in her door frame, “Hey! You ready for tomorrow?”

She smiled lightly, “As ready as ever.”

Ashlyn came into the room and sat down on the edge of Gina’s bed, letting out a light squeal, “God, I can’t believe we’re going to Europe!”

“I can’t believe it either, Ash…” she replied, walking over to her bed and laying on her back, “we could come back and be completely different people.”

Ashlyn giggled, “Oh yeah. _A lot_ can happen in ten days.” She laid on her back, mirroring Gina’s actions, “did EJ tell you about his five step plan to win Kourtney over?”

Gina turned her head to look at the redhead beside her, and laughed, “He told me about how he wanted to ask her out on the Eiffel Tower. What a dork.”

“He practically begged Miss Jenn to have them be in the same group for the trip.” Ashlyn said. “It sounds a lot like Nini and Elias… Big Red mentioned that Nini did basically the same thing.”

Gina sucked in a breath, hating that Ashlyn had to remind her of the Nini and Elias situation which only reminded her more of Ricky’s proposal. Stupid Ricky Bowen. 

She shook it off, “If it really was that easy then we could’ve been in the same group.”

“Yeahhh. I know.” Ashlyn took her phone out to check the time. “We should really get some sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow!”

Ashlyn got up from Gina’s bed and headed for the door. Before she was out of the room, she turned back to her, “I forgot to ask, did Ricky Bowen ever find you earlier? He asked me where your locker was and I just thought it was kind of weird…”

_So that’s how he found me._

Gina rolled her eyes, bringing a hand up to her face, “Uh, he just wanted to know where our group is supposed to meet tomorrow. Apparently he’s super uninformed on our trip.”

Ashlyn nodded her head slowly, almost as if she didn't really believe what her friend had just told her, “Right… Well, I’ll see you in the morning?”

Gina nodded her head in response, smiling tiredly, “Yeah, night Ash.”

“Goodnight, Gina.”

━━━━━━

Remember how Gina claimed that she wasn’t going to go along with Ricky’s little game? Well, a lot can happen in just a few hours. 

It started when Gina arrived at the school at 7:30 in the morning with EJ and Ashlyn Caswell both by her side. After EJ had gotten all of their bags out of the trunk of his car, they all headed to the school’s auditorium to check in with the chaperones before they all left for the airport. 

Once the three of them had checked in with each of their group’s designated chaperones, they sat in the seats of the auditorium waiting to depart from their school.

Gina could feel the excitement bubbling in her chest as they all waited to leave the school. They were going to Europe. _Europe!_ London, Berlin, Prague, and then Paris. 

Gina reached for her phone and texted her mom:

**_heading for the airport soon! love and miss you so much xo_ **

Once she sent her text, she looked up and across the room she saw Ricky Bowen. He was whispering something into his best friend Big Red’s ear and just as she looked at him, he looked at her. He quickly tore his eyes away from hers only to look at someone else. 

She followed his gaze to see Nini with Elias. They were cuddling each other tight sitting with Kourtney and a few of Elias’ friends. 

Gina sighed quietly, feeling a little guilty about the situation. Of course it bothered her to see Elias with someone but she only had a crush on him. She couldn’t imagine what it felt like to see your ex with someone else. 

“…do you think Kourtney would want to sit next to me on the bus?” Gina’s attention turned toward EJ, who was talking to both her and Ashlyn.

“If you ask her to, I’m sure she would, EJ.” Ashlyn rolled her eyes, a bit tired of EJ talking about his crush on Kourtney.

Gina’s phone buzzed in her lap. It was her mom:

 **_Stay safe sweetie! Call me when you can_ **♥

She smiled and sent a quick text back. 

After a few moments of going back and forth with EJ about his Kourtney dilemma, the girls had convinced him to just ask her. So they watched as he walked over to her confidently, engaging in whatever conversation Nini and Elias were having with Kourtney.

“Do you think he’s embarrassing himself?” Ashlyn whispered to Gina.

“Oh, definitely.”

At 8:15, the 40 some students and the eight chaperones all got on to the two motor coach buses parked outside the school and headed to the airport. EJ ended up in triumph and was sitting with Kourtney on the way there while Gina and Ashlyn sat together.

After about a thirty minute car ride to the airport, the group of students were impatiently waiting to get off the bus as the chaperones called off their names one by one. Once the roll call was up, the chaperones instructed that the students could get off the bus and grab their luggage from the deck below. 

Gina and Ashlyn stood up from their seats, waiting for their turn to get off the bus. As they waited, Ricky and Big Red were walking down the bus aisle. Both he and Gina made eye contact in that moment and Ricky sent her an awkward smile.

It’s almost like he was somehow guilting her into this. He just looked so deflated. Is that going to be all she sees when she looks at him all vacation? Again, stupid Ricky Bowen. 

Finally it was time for Gina and Ashlyn to get off the bus and claim their bags.

Gina sighed, turning to Ashlyn, “I am not looking forward to this 15 hour flight. At least we’re sitting together.”

“Gosh, I know. Hopefully we can get some sleep during the flight.” Ashlyn replied, pulling her backpack onto her shoulder.

EJ and Kourtney eventually caught up to both of them when they got their bags. After a few minutes of standing outside, the whole class headed into the airport to check into their flight and check in their bags.

While she was walking in, Gina noticed that Elias and Nini were walking right in front of her talking about what they were going to do on the flight to pass time. Her eyes wandered down to their hands and saw that their fingers were intertwined.

Gina frowned slightly seeing Elias run his thumb along her knuckles. She tore her eyes away from them and started talking to EJ and Kourtney.

After what seemed like the longest check-in process ever, they all went through security and all got their passports checked. Finally everyone was free to roam the airport while they waited to board their flight that boarded at 11:09am. 

They had roughly two hours until they boarded their flight. The first hour went by fairly quickly. Gina, Ashlyn, EJ, and Kourtney all got coffee together and then they roamed some of the convenience shops to kill time. 

Once there was about a half hour until their flight boarded, they all decided to sit at their gate. Gina took out her phone and once again texted her mom.

Then, she stuffed her phone away in her pocket. Her eyes wandered to the row of seats across from her, where she saw Ricky slumped in his seat and only one of his earbuds in his ear. He checked his phone and whispered something to Big Red then he got up from his seat.

She watched him as he headed towards the bathrooms nearest to their gate. Gina exhaled and scanned the gate for the infamous Nini and Elias in which they were nowhere to be found.

After a few minutes, her eyes wandered back to the bathrooms where lo and behold stood Nini, Elias and Ricky. The soccer captain had his arm resting around Nini as she talked to Ricky, who clearly looked mortified to even be talking to both of them.

He looked uncomfortable and awkward. Gina could tell that his eyes were trained on Elias’ arm that was draped around his ex-girlfriend. Again, she felt that pang of guilt in her chest.

And then she remembered that she had to spend pretty much the whole trip with those lovebirds and Ricky. They had to go on every excursion, every museum trip, basically every part of the trip will be spent _together_. She imagined how she would have to watch Ricky heartbroken and yearning as he watched the love of his life with another guy. She would have to watch him not even enjoy his trip to Europe due to being put in the same group as them.

It would probably ruin Gina’s trip. 

Gina’s never really done anything rebellious or crazy in her entire high school experience. Maybe it would be a little fun to stir up the pot. 

She chewed on her bottom lip, her eyes still trained on Ricky who definitely wanted out of whatever they were talking about.

So, without thinking about it any further, Gina got up and headed straight for her three classmates. When she neared closer to them, she put on her best fake-smile and decided to put on a show.

Nini was talking about something as Gina walked over, “…we’re in the same group–”

“Hey, Ricky,” she met Ricky and placed her hand on his upper bicep, causing him to almost jump out of his skin. He looked up at Gina, his eyes widening, “did you ask Big Red if he could switch seats with Ashlyn yet?”

Ricky stared at her, his mouth hanging open in surprise. “I–uh,” he looked down at her hand on his arm and then back up at her, “um, yeah…”

He looked over at Nini and Elias, who clearly were confused as to why Gina Porter interrupted their conversation. He looked back at her, clearing his throat, “Yeah. Big Red said it’s cool… he loves Ashlyn.”

“Great!” Gina smirked, leaning in a little closer to Ricky, who was uncomfortably stiff next to her. Her eyes moved over to Nini and Elias, who stood there awkwardly, “Oh hi! I’m sorry I interrupted you, I just couldn’t wait to sit with Ricky. I was a little upset when I found out he didn't ask Big Red sooner.”

Gina watched Nini carefully as her face faltered for a moment, looking between both her and the curly haired boy. After a few moments, Nini swallowed, “No, yeah… it’s totally fine.”

Her eyes wandered to Elias, who was looking at her skeptically. Gina felt a twinge of butterflies in her stomach as he looked at her with his blue eyes, but then he looked at Ricky.

“So…" Elias brought his hand up to his neck, "are you guys dating or something?” 

“No!” Ricky exclaimed.

“Yes.” Gina said at the same time.

Ricky’s head snapped to Gina and she sent him a confused glance. They both awkwardly laughed together. 

Gina turned her head to the couple in front of them, her grip tightening on Ricky’s arm, “Clearly we have a few things to talk about on our 15 hour flight.” 

Nini and Elias shared a glance and Ricky took that as their cue to get out of that conversation, “Uh, if you’d excuse us we have to go talk about some things.”

He practically dragged Gina away from Nini and Elias, who were bidding them their goodbyes. Once Ricky found a safe spot for him to talk to her, he dropped her hand.

“What was _that?”_

“What was what? I’m doing what you asked… you know, pretending to like you?” Gina crossed her arms.

Ricky huffed, “I can see _that._ But, last time I checked you clearly were not into it and now suddenly you’re playing along? I just don’t get it.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Look, I realized within the last ten minutes that this trip is going to be quite miserable for the both of us if we have to watch them being all couple-y all day everyday. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to have fun on this trip.”

Ricky stared at her for a moment, biting down on his lower lip and clearly thinking about something. “So you’re serious about this?”

“Yes, Bowen. I’m serious about this.”

“You sure?”

“If you keep asking me I’ll take it back and I won’t help you.” 

Ricky let out a sigh of relief, “Okay. Dope! So now we just have to act like we like each other.”

Gina tilted her head, “That _is_ the plan.”

Ricky stood there, not being sure of what to say, “Should I really tell Red that he has to sit with Ashlyn?”

“I mean, probably… we’re trying to convince everyone. If we convince everyone that we are into each other, then that’ll make Nini fall for it.”

Ricky nodded his head and stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants, “Right.”

“…we are now inviting those passengers with small children, and any passengers requiring special assistance, to begin boarding at this time.” The loudspeaker at their gate sounded.

They both exchanged glances and decided it was time for them to get back to their gate. Ricky went to go talk to Big Red and Gina to Ashlyn.

Gina sat down next to Ashlyn, who was currently sifting through her book bag for her gum.

“Hey Ash?”

“Oh, hey, Gi. What’s up?”

“Can I ask you a really huge favor?”

The redhead looked up, her brows raised, “What is it?”

“This is going to sound crazy but can you sit with Big Red on the flight?”

She laughed, “Why would I sit with Big Red? Who would you sit with?”

Gina sighed, “Ricky. I’d sit with Ricky.”

“What–why would you sit with Ricky? Am I missing something?”

Gina played with the hem of her hoodie, “I don’t have much time to explain but I promise I’ll fill you in when we land alright?”

“I have to wait 15 hours to see why I have to sit next to Big Red?” Ashlyn huffed. “I mean no offense to Big Red… I love him but I’d rather be sitting with you.”

“Trust me, I’d rather sit with you too.” Gina mumbled. “But, since I can’t text you during the flight, maybe Big Red can fill you in? I’m sure he knows what’s going on.”

Ashlyn paused for a moment, then sighed, “Ugh, fine. I’ll sit with him.”

“Gosh, Ash, you are the best. You don’t even know!”

Before Ashlyn could respond the flight attendant at the desk called, “Flight 89 to London is now boarding…” 

Ashlyn and Gina grabbed their bags and headed to the line with their other classmates. As they were waiting in line, Big Red and Ricky met up with them.

“Hey.” Ricky smiled awkwardly.

“Hi.” Gina replied.

Big Red laughed, “ _Awww,_ look at this happy couple.”

“ _Couple_? What the hell?” Ashlyn looked at Gina with wide eyes.

The line moved and Gina sighed, looking around her quickly. She shook her head vigorously, “Ash, I promise it’s not like that.”

“Not _yet_.” Big Red chimed in, smirking.

“Dude?” Ricky hit his best friend’s arm.

“What?” Big Red held his arm, “Geez, I’m just kidding…”

“Okay, Red, you’re going to have to do a lot of explaining to do. I have literally no idea what is happening here.” Ashlyn said.

Gina sighed and shook her head. The line moved forward until they all got their tickets scanned at the gate and were ready to board. They all walked down the jetbridge to get to the plane.

Gina and Big Red exchanged their plane tickets as they entered the plane. They all followed their classmates down the aisle, through first class and into economy seating. 

Ricky spotted Nini and Elias, who were already in their seats. They were sat in the middle section of the plane, right next to two of the chaperones. They were already getting comfortable and Nini draped a blanket over them. He had to look away.

Gina followed behind him and she, too, saw them. But, she didn’t say or do anything. All she did was follow him to their seats. 

“34A…” Ricky mumbled, looking down at his ticket and then scanned the numbers on the rows of seats. He looked back at Gina, “What’s your number?”

She looked down at her ticket, “Uh, 34B.”

Ricky nodded in response and after a few moments they arrived at their seats. “Here we are.” He turned to Gina, “Do you want the window seat?”

Gina pressed her lips in a line. Of course she wanted the window seat. Who wouldn’t? “Do _you_ want the window seat?”

He chuckled, “It’s up to you, Porter.”

Gina stared at him for a moment. _Oh, so he’s using last names too. I see._

“Fine, I will have the window seat.” Gina said.

Ricky nodded his head, “Alright. After you.” He moved out of the way for her and gestured towards the seats.

Gina took off her book bag and made her way to the window seat and sat down. She placed her backpack under the seat in front of her. Ricky followed her actions and did the same with his backpack that he had been carrying.

He sighed and looked around. Luckily, he and Gina didn’t have any view of Nini and Elias. But, they did have a view of Big Red and Ashlyn, who were only a few rows ahead of them.

“I can’t believe we’re going to be in Europe.” Ricky said for what felt like the thousandth time.

“I can’t believe I have to spend my vacation in Europe pretending to like you.” Gina said, unzipping her backpack and searching for her headphones.

“Hey! You agreed to this.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “You guilted me into it.”

Ricky’s lips parted, “No, _no_ I didn’t. I took your no as an answer yesterday. I was just minding my business and then you decided to be my fake girlfriend, or whatever it is.”

She sighed, “Only because you looked desperate. It’s called charity work, Bowen.”

“Hey! By the end of this trip you’re going to _love_ me.”

Gina finally looked at him, “I highly doubt that. By the end of this trip I’m going to be so excited to be liberated from being in your presence.”

“Listen, I’m not thrilled to be in your presence either.”

“Well, you’re gonna have to get used to it, _honey pot._ ” Gina conjured up the fakest smile she could put on, and batted her eyelashes at him. The corners of Ricky's lips turned up slightly as he looked back at her. 

“So are you, my _honey butter biscuit._ ” His smile held the same evil-but-sweet combination that hers had. After a few moments, he broke her eye contact and turned his head down to his phone.

Gina’s smile faded and her face twisted into a sour expression, “God, you owe me, Ricky Bowen.”


	3. Ricky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi there! im (obviously) back with another chapter!
> 
> first of all, i want to put a disclaimer here: i really don't know anything about europe and it's cities (apart what i can look up/have heard from the internet) so if there are any inaccuracies, please don't mind them!! but thank you to my wonderful friend sheba for helping me out with information on london <3 ily
> 
> second off, i haven't really proofread this chapter so if there are any spelling mistakes or anything that doesn't make sense please ignore them :")
> 
> SO with that, enjoy a chapter full of rina trying to be fake boyfriend and girlfriend! let me know what you think :)

Two months ago, if you were to ask Ricky what he would be doing on his senior trip and who he would be with this is what he would say: 1. He’d be with Nini. Who else would he be with? And 2. They’d spend the entire trip with each other—eating so many different types of food, holding hands through the streets of whatever city, and just enjoying each other’s company just as they always did.

Never in a million years would he have expected that he’d be spending his entire trip to Europe with Gina Porter, pretending to be her fake boyfriend in order to get his beloved Nini Salazar-Roberts back. 

But here he was: not yet in Europe, sitting at a table in front of some luxury cafe with an overly expensive cup of coffee across from Gina. 

They had an hour and 10 minute layover in the Atlanta airport and Gina decided it would be a great idea to come up with a little rulebook for their game. 

Earlier in the hour they had met up with Big Red and Ashlyn, in which Ashlyn expressed her many concerns about Ricky and Gina and their fake dating facade.

_“How do you even know that it’s going to work? And how are the two of you going to act like you’re in love? Do you even have rules?”_

Ricky, Gina and Big Red all assured her that the plan could not go wrong. How could it go wrong? 

“…are you even listening?” Ricky’s head snapped to Gina, who was staring at him across the table. 

“Uh, yeah I was.” He swallowed, looking down at the paper that was on the table.

“What did I say?” Gina leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms and sending him a knowing look.

“Uh,” he started, then paused, “yeah I totally was not listening.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Look, we don’t have a lot of time to figure out the key details of our relationship and finish up our rules. We really need to hurry.”

Ricky sat up, his grip tightening on his cup of coffee, “Sorry, yeah, you’re right.” He said. “Where were we?”

Gina’s eyes lingered on him for a moment, until she looked back down at the crinkled sheet of paper in between them, “Um,” she began, her eyes scanning over the paper, “oh, when did you ask me out?”

His eyebrows furrowed, “How do you know I was the one who asked you out?”

Gina scoffed, “do I look like I would ask _you_ out? No, you definitely asked _me_ out.”

Ricky sighed, “You definitely could’ve been the one to ask me out, Porter. I’m a very charming guy! But, fine. If anyone asks, which I doubt they will, I asked you out.”

Gina ignored him and started to scribble some stuff down, “Let’s say that you asked me out about two weeks ago…”

“You came into Red’s pizza place when I was there one night.” Ricky added.

She looked up from the paper, “Big Red has a pizza place?”

Ricky’s eyes widened and his mouth fell agape, “You’ve _never_ had Redonovich’s pizza? Are you living under a rock?”

Gina paused for a moment, “I mean maybe I’ve had it… Ash and her family don’t order pizza all that often so I don’t know if we’ve had it.” 

Ricky suddenly remembered that Big Red had mentioned something about Gina being almost like family to the Caswells. He didn’t know if what she had just said meant that she lives with them or not, but it definitely spiked his curiosity. He decided to tuck that thought away for another time and continue on with the conversation.

“Well, once we get back home I’ll have to get you a slice. I might be biased here but it’s probably the best pizza in all of Salt Lake.”

Gina nodded her head, “I might take you up on that, honey pot.” 

Ricky groaned, “Oh, not with the names again.”

“No can do, we’re in a relationship so we have to have some pet names.”

“Pet names make me cringe. They–” 

“So you’re telling me that in your entire three years of dating Nini, you never called her anything other than her name?” Gina asked.

“Well, no… I mean I did call her babe and baby but that has to be it.” 

Truth be told, Ricky really didn’t have any other pet names for Nini but she definitely had _one_ for him. It was “Stinky” or "Stinky-Winky" if she was feeling a little adventurous and anyone outside of their relationship would think it was the weirdest name for your boyfriend. The nickname started when they had started dating, when they sat on Nini's bed and Nini had pointed out that Ricky's feet smelled (pretty) bad. She thought it was cute and then the nickname was born. But Ricky would never tell Gina about it; he would never ever hear the end of it. 

Gina laughed and shook her head, “Those are probably the worst of pet names. I would never want to be called baby or babe… it’s just too awkward and weird.”

Ricky raised his eyebrows, “then what would you like to be called? You know, if you had to have a pet name.”

“Anything but.” 

“Okay, alright. How about…” Ricky began to ponder, “Sugar? Love muffin? Cooki–”

“Oh my God, _no_! Never!” Gina shook her head, laughing lightly. 

“Sweet thang?”

“What, is this _Suite Life of Zack and Cody_?” 

“No. Good show though. How about Snookums? Sweetums? Buttercup?” 

Gina stuffed her face into her hands, “Please stop.”

“I don’t know about you, but my personal favorite _has_ to be honey butter biscuit. It rolls nicely off the tongue.”

“Oh my God, Bowen, no wonder we were never friends before this trip. You’re incredibly annoying.”

Ricky gripped his chest, “Wow, Porter, I’m so deeply offended.”

Gina was about to respond, but the alarm on her phone started to go off which signaled that the two teenagers had to get back to their gate. Ricky sighed, knowing that he had to endure another 10 hours on a plane as if the last four hours weren’t enough. 

They both got up and Gina folded their piece of paper up and tucked it into the pocket of her hoodie. As they started walking, Gina turned to him, “we didn’t get anything done so now we have to discuss our rules on the flight.”

Ricky looked down at her, “Alright.”

They walked in silence a majority of the way to their gate. Once they neared, most of their classmates and the chaperones were gathered in a big circle.

Ricky’s eyes immediately landed on Nini and Elias and felt sick. He never got used to seeing the both of them together, let alone cuddling up to each other. He couldn’t understand why they had to do it right in front of his face as if the two of them weren’t together the month before.

It hurt him more than anybody would ever know. Nini’s been one of the only constant things in his life and for the last month, she’s been gone. He went to her for everything. His family problems, his friend problems, hell even his homework problems. She was always there for him and he missed her so bad.

It seemed like he was staring at her for a little too long and then Nini’s familiar brown eyes met his. At that moment, he felt like he was going to melt. Into a puddle.

She looked so cute in her sweats and her hair tied into two braids. She had a small smile on her face as she back looked at him, and for just a moment Ricky almost forgot that they weren’t together.

That was until he felt a hand placed in his. He quickly looked down at his hand, and then up at Gina, who was smiling at him. His stomach twisted and suddenly he was whipped back into the reality of the situation.

He swallowed and looked back over to Nini, who’s small smile was now replaced with a slight frown.

After a few moments, he felt a small squeeze on his hand and he looked over at Gina.

“Don’t look at her. It’s too obvious.” She whispered, leaning in a little closer to him.

Ricky nodded his head, “Right. Yeah, yeah.” 

Finally they met up with their friends Big Red and Ashlyn who were standing with EJ and Kourtney.

“Hey guys.” Gina greeted.

“Hey!” Big Red, Kourtney and Ashlyn all said in unison.

“Where were you guys?” Big Red asked curiously.

“We went to get some coffee… Gina was exhausted from the flight so she needed some coffee.” Ricky replied, his lips pressed in a thin line as he felt the eyes of both EJ Caswell and Kourtney Greene burning a hole in his head.

It didn’t help that Kourtney was Nini’s best friend. But he couldn’t figure out why EJ looked so uncomfortable that he was holding Gina’s hand. It had to have something to do with Gina being close to the Caswells. 

“Okay, that’s a lie, Ricky needed some coffee. I just tagged along.” Gina rolled her eyes.

“That sounds like Ricky. He’s always dragging me to get coffee before we go to the skate park.” Big Red laughed.

“I’m sorry—am I missing something here?” EJ budded in, his eyes flickering down to Ricky and Gina’s intertwined fingers. “I didn’t know the two of you were… together.”

Ricky’s lips parted, his eyes scanning over Big Red and Ashlyn’s faces. They both held looks of amusement. 

They were the only two people on the planet who could know about this. EJ was clearly talking to Kourtney, who is Nini’s best friend so they both could never know about their fake dating scheme.

“Um, yeah. It’s a really long story, EJ. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you… It happened _really_ fast.” Gina smiled lightly at her dear friend.

Ricky swallowed, and then managed to muster up a smile. Before he could say anything else, the loud speaker sounded that the flight was boarding.

Gina dropped Ricky’s hand and stuffed her hand into her pocket once everyone’s eyes were off of them. 

It took about a half hour for everyone on the flight to board and get settled in. With their luck, Ricky and Gina managed to end up with a window seat and this time, Gina let Ricky sit by the window.

The first two hours of the flight went by fairly quickly. The pair of teenagers discussed the parameters of their fake relationship. They decided that there really wasn’t much that they needed to have rules on if they just made it seem like they were in love.

  1. They had to hold hands when walking together. It's simple but effective.
  2. There was no talking about their scheme whatsoever unless they knew they were in complete privacy. They can't risk it. 
  3. And there was to be absolutely NO kissing. They’re just not the type of couple that likes PDA. It's gross.



After they finished discussing their three very important rules, they both decided to do their own thing. Gina popped her headphones in and Ricky went to play games on his phone. 

The next few hours were just like their first flight before the layover. They sat in complete silence, only mumbling a few words to each other every now and then or when they had to get up to use the bathroom. Eventually, the sky outside the plane started to grow darker and darker until it became night. 

Ricky shut his eyes somewhere in the sixth hour and began drifting asleep to his “night vibes” playlist. The only thing that was on his mind was Nini and how by the end of the trip he could be sitting beside her on the flight home. 

━━━━━━

Ricky woke up to the feeling of something tickling his face. He peeled his eyes open only to see he was resting his head _very_ close to Gina’s face and that tickling feeling was coming from her soft curls. Once Ricky had realized just how close he was in proximity to her, he quickly jolted back, only resulting in hitting his head _hard_ on the wall of the plane.

“Ow!” Ricky winced, his hand flying to the back of his head.

Gina, who had been sleeping, was abruptly woken up by his sudden outburst. She looked over at him with tired eyes, “Jesus, Bowen, what the _hell_?”

“Good morning to you too.” He grumbled whilst massaging the back of his head. 

“What even happened?” Gina sat up in her seat, trying to be quiet so she didn't wake anybody up.

Ricky let out a heavy sigh, not really wanting to admit why he hit his head. “The plane must’ve hit some turbulence because it woke me up and… bam. I just hit my head.”

Gina eyed him wearily, clearly being unsure if she really believed his story but she ignored him anyway. The pair of teenagers didn’t see any point in going back to sleep once they realized there was only a half hour left in their flight. 

Once the pilot made his announcement that they were making their descent into London, the rest of the passengers had woken up too. For the first time in what seemed like forever, Ricky suddenly felt excitement bubbling in his chest. He felt like a kid again, a kid who was about to go to Disney World for the first time. Sure, he was exhausted from the uncomfortable and long flight, but he was about to be in Europe for ten days. 

Their plane landed smoothly, and just like that they were in another country. And it seemed like an instant before the plane erupted in excited whispers by the teenagers that sat inside. Ricky could even see the small smile on Gina’s face as she put her backpack onto her shoulders.

Once everyone was off the plane and stretched their legs, the group of organized chaperones did another roll call and then they were off to check into their hotel. Ricky and Gina sat together on the bus. Though everyone was drained from their flight, they couldn’t contain their excitement as the charter bus rolled through the city of London.

After twenty minutes, they finally arrived at their hotel. Once everyone was let off the buses and had grabbed all of their luggage, Gina grabbed Ricky’s hand. He looked over at her and she didn’t look at him, she was admiring the scenery of the hotel. 

The chaperones all went to check into the hotel and get everything situated and the forty students gathered in the lobby. There was an excited buzz over all of the students and Ricky loved the energy. 

As Big Red was excitedly talking about how he’s going to try every British candy in the book, Ricky’s eyes wandered over to where Nini stood. She sat next to Elias on one of the couches with her head rested on his shoulder. Clearly, she was tired from the long journey.

Ricky felt a pang of jealousy in his chest as he watched Elias press his lips on the top of her head. He had to look away.

A few more minutes passed by and the chaperones gathered the group together. First, they handed out their room keys by calling one member of each pair up to claim it. Once everyone had their own keys, Miss Jenn - one of the chaperones - made an announcement.

“Alright everybody!” She clapped. “So, we are well aware that everyone is exhausted from our flight. We left early in the morning in Salt Lake and now we’re here and it’s suddenly 10am again.”

“Today’s probably going to be the most laid back day for us. The only thing we’re going to do on our itinerary today is visiting Oxford Street to do some shopping. But, that won’t be until 2:00 when we’re all well rested.” 

Miss Jenn turned her attention to one of her colleagues who piggy-backed off of her announcements, “So we will be meeting down here in the lobby at 2:00 and will gather with your groups, then we will be off!”

_Ugh, not the groups... He’ll actually have to talk to Nini again?_

Ricky turned to Gina, “Well, honey butter biscuit,” he sighed, “looks like we have to say goodbye for now.”

She looked back at him, a subtle glare on her face, “That _really_ sucks. I’m gonna miss you so much, love muffin.”

God, these nicknames really were horrible.

“You guys have nicknames already? Wow, you’re prepared.” Big Red laughed.

And then they all went their separate ways. Gina went with Ashlyn and Ricky went the other direction with Big Red. 

Once the pair of best friends made it up to the third floor and found their designated room, the two boys ran to the beds and fell on them. 

“I have never been so excited to see a bed.” Ricky hummed happily, staring up at the ceiling of their room. 

Big Red exhaled loudly, “Me too, dude, me too.”

Ricky turned his head to his best friend, “Hey, how was your flight by the way? How was sitting with Ashlyn?”

“Actually it wasn’t too bad. Ashlyn is so chill and even wanted to watch a few of the Harry Potter movies together! We got up to Half Blood Prince and then both passed out.” Red explained and then turned his head to Ricky, “how was your flight?”

He shrugged in response, “I mean we didn’t really talk that much. I woke up and our faces were really close together and so then I quickly moved out of the way so Gina didn’t wake up and kill me but then I hit my head on the wall. My head hurts like hell.”

Big Red laughed, “Of course you hit your head.”

Before Ricky could say much of anything else, his phone buzzed. Half expecting a text from his dad, he grabbed his phone. The one person he didn’t expect to get a text from name popped up on his screen. It was Nini:

**_listen ricky. I am VERY happy that u managed to find someone and its totally none of my business but can i just say why gina??? You guys didn’t even know each other before… like when did it happen?_ **

Ricky sat up quickly.

Big Red propped himself up on his elbows, “What is it, man?”

“It’s Nini. She texted me.”

“Nini texted you? As in your _ex-girlfriend_ Nini? The same Nini who has a new boyfriend?”

Ricky glared at him, “Yes, dipshit my ex-girlfriend.” 

Ricky stared down at his phone and a small amount of excitement started forming in his chest. It bothered Nini that he was with Gina. It was only the first day on their trip and their plan was working!

“Well, what’d she say?” Big Red inquired.

“She’s quote-un-quote _very_ happy that I found someone but why am I with Gina?” 

“Dude! That’s perfect! I knew that she’d be bothered by you being with Gina. Wow, I really am big-brained. You’re lucky to have me.”

Ricky chuckled lightly at his best friend before reading the text over again. He let out a sigh, “What am I supposed to say to that?”

“You could say something like “Hey, Nini! You’re right it’s none of your business! See you in a few hours!”” The redhead replied.

Ricky breathed out, butterflies forming in his stomach at the near thought that Nini was jealous of him being with Gina. He opened his phone and clicked on the text, revealing the last few messages between them.

He bit down on his lower lip, trying to think of something good to respond to her. It couldn’t be too straightforward or too cryptic. He started typing and reading the words aloud for his best friend to hear:

**_Me and you haven’t spoken in a while so I really didn’t think it was a big deal that I found someone new. Especially since you’re with Elias now? And the thing with Gina is that it happened out of the blue and was super unexpected. Don’t you think you should be happy for me?_ **

“How does that sound?” Ricky asked his best friend for approval.

Big Red agreed with his text and he pressed the ‘send’ button. Then, he threw his phone down on the bed.

“I can’t believe she texted me.”

“Yeah… I mean she must’ve been thinking about you for the whole flight.”

Ricky smiled to himself in triumph, “Huh. You’re right.” He let himself fall back on the bed once again.

The room was filled with comfortable silence. Ricky was about to shut his eyes but his phone buzzed again.

His heart raced and his hand flew to his phone. It was Nini (again).

**_Yeah. you’re right Ricky… I am happy for you._**

**_See you soon !_ **

“She said she’s happy for me.” Ricky said, turning his head to look at Big Red who was texting somebody on his phone. He had a smile spread across his face and laughed out loud. Ricky raised an eyebrow, “who’re you texting, Red?”

Red looked up quickly, “Uh, no one.”

“ _Dude_? Who are you texting?”

“Do I have to tell you?”

“I mean… you don’t _have_ to tell me. But, you’re blushing.” Ricky noted.

The redhead’s lips parted and brought his hand up to his cheek, “I’m not blushing.”

Ricky scoffed, a laugh escaping his lips, “Dude, I might be exhausted but I can see that you’re definitely blushing!” 

He hadn’t seen his best friend blush in a long time. 

The last time he’d seen him blush is the time when they were bowling two years prior and Big Red had been staring at the cashier at the snack stand the entire night. They had been ordering food and if you asked Ricky, the cashier guy was totally flirting with Big Red but the redhead was adamant that the worker was straight. Nothing happened because of it.

“I’m not!” Big Red grumbled, turning his face away from Ricky. “Why are we even talking about me? You’re the one with the relationship problems.”

“Fine,” Ricky had raised his hands up in surrender, “I’ll drop it… _for now_.”

The two boys sat in comfortable silence for a while. The curly haired brunette’s mind roamed between thoughts of just what his best friend could be hiding and thoughts of his ex-girlfriend, who was probably getting settled in with Kourtney in her room. At least he knew that she wasn’t with Elias (or at least he hoped so). 

“Do you think any of the members of One Direction are here?”

Ricky let out a hearty laugh and turned his attention once again to his best friend, “That would be kind of sick. Imagine meeting Harry Styles.”

Big Red rolled his eyes, “No. Imagine meeting _Zayn Malik_.”

“Didn’t he leave the band?”

Big Red sighed, “Yes. But he’s still a member to me!”

After a few more minutes of Big Red explaining basically the whole history of One Direction as a band and even giving Ricky a five minute description on their lives as solo artists, the two boys decided to take a nap before they had to leave at 2:00. 

━━━━━━

“How’s your head?” Gina had asked once they met each other in the hotel lobby at precisely 2:00. She had changed her outfit from sweats and replaced them with a pair of jeans and a black denim jacket over top of her white shirt. She looked nice.

“What?” Ricky had asked while taking in the outfit she wore.

“Your head. That you hit this morning.” 

He cleared his throat, “Uh, right. It’s a bit sore.”

Gina nodded her head slowly and was about to say something else until someone had approached the two of them. They turned their head to them and found that it was Carlos Rodriguez, one of their classmates and the fifth member of their group.

“ _So_ ,” he started, eyeing the two skeptically, “the streets are saying that the two of you are dating. Is that true?”

Ricky and Gina exchanged a glance. Gina turned back to Carlos, “Well, hello to you Carlos!”

“Hi.” He replied, looking between his classmates once again. 

“The streets are right, by the way,” Ricky had said, taking Gina’s hand into his, “we _are_ a couple.”

He raised his eyebrows, “Interesting.” 

Gina tilted her head curiously, “Why’s it interesting?”

Carlos laughed lightly, “I don’t know… it’s just the two of you don’t seem like the type of people who would end up together. And plus, I do think it is a little strange how all of a sudden the two of you are dating after we found out yesterday who else is in our group.” 

Truthfully, Ricky had never paid much attention to Carlos. Over the years, he’s had some classes with him but their social groups had never crossed paths (unless you count Nini). Even when he was with Nini, Ricky didn’t go to any of her theater gatherings. This was probably the first time he’s actually spoken to Carlos. 

“We’re not _suddenly_ dating, Carlos.” Gina replied, her tone coming off as defensive. “We’ve been talking for a few weeks on the down low. It’s just that we didn’t want to stir up any drama.”

Carlos gazed at her for a moment. She continued, “If anything, the universe wanted to stir up drama. I was practically begging Miss Jenn for us to be in the same group for the trip and next thing we knew, she decided to put us in with Nini and Elias. We _know_ it seems out of the blue - it sucks and it’s probably gonna be awkward, but I don’t really appreciate you questioning our relationship.”

Ricky stared down at her, his lips parting at how convincing she sounded. He looked over at Carlos, trying his best to hide the surprisement on his face. 

There were a few moments of silence before Carlos hummed, “Alright. Sorry.”

He didn’t seem entirely convinced, but Ricky still took it as a small win. 

Quietness had fallen between the three once again. Before anyone had the chance to say anything further, Mr. Mazzara, one of the chaperones had begun lecturing the forty students on how “you are all adults now so be on your best behavior and stick together.” 

Their tech-teacher explained how Oxford Street was only a few blocks away and that they would be heading there shortly after they gathered into their groups. 

“By now, you all should know who is in your groups. So please, if you all would get together with your groups and we can get this show on the road.” Mr. Mazzara stiffly clapped his hands together. 

“It’s so weird to see Mazzara in those clothes.” Big Red whispered to Ricky.

“I know. He looks so uncomfortable.” Ricky responded, a small laugh escaping his lips. By now, everyone had started to move into their groups. He turned to Red, “Well, have fun with your group. Maybe we’ll run into each other while shopping.”

With that, Big Red and Ashlyn had left their friends to meet up with the rest of their group. Ricky had turned his attention towards looking for Nini and Elias. Once he spotted them, butterflies erupted in his stomach when he realized they had been walking towards them.

Gina squeezed his hand in an effort to calm him down. He visibly looked nervous. 

Carlos turned to the pair, “You know, I was a bit disappointed to see who’s group I was in. Just so the two of you know, I’ll be hanging around you. I’d rather not hang out with Nini and Elias Scott - that’d be a total snooze fest.”

Gina stifled her laugh as Nini and Elias were approaching them. Ricky looked down at her with an amused look on his face.

“Hey guys!” Nini greeted them happily, causing Ricky’s head to snap up quickly.

“Hey, Nini.” Gina put on a smile as she looked between her and Elias.

Oh, how fun this trip will be! Ricky got to see his ex-girlfriend, her current boyfriend and his fake-girlfriend every single day. And plus, he wasn’t entirely sure that Carlos was convinced with their situation. 

“Neens and I were talking before and we thought that in a few hours after we shopped, we could all go to dinner.” Elias fondly looked down at Nini and wrapped his arm around her shoulders. 

_Neens. That’s what Ricky used to call her._

He shook it off, trying to avoid Nini’s eyes, “Yeah. That sounds cool.”

“I’m down.” Carlos added. 

Gina leaned into Ricky’s side and rested her head on his shoulder, “That sounds like fun.”

And then within a few minutes, everyone was in their assigned groups and ready to head to their first tourist destination of the trip. 

It was probably a ten minute walk down to Oxford Street but to Ricky, it seemed to take forever to get there. He desperately tried to take in the beautiful city of London, he tried to look at all of the beautiful architecture and he tried to just be in the moment. But, unfortunately for him, his attention remained solely on Nini and her boyfriend who walked a few feet ahead of them.

He hated the way that Elias had his arm wrapped around her tightly as they walked down the city streets and how he would whisper something to her every few minutes, causing her to laugh. He hated how Elias could make her laugh so effortlessly without trying and even how they looked cute together as a couple. It sucked.

“You know,” Gina whispered to him, “if I knew how much of a boring fake-boyfriend you’d be, I would’ve never signed up for this position.”

Ricky looked over at the girl who walked beside him and rolled his eyes, “ _Gee_ , thanks.” 

She rolled her eyes right back and tugged on his arm lightly, “Come on, Bowen, you seriously need to lighten up. We knew it was going to be like this,” she gestured her free hand towards Nini and Elias, “so you shouldn’t be dwelling on it. At least _act_ like you’re enjoying yourself.” 

He knew that she was right. He shouldn’t be putting all his time and energy on dwelling; what he should be putting his time and energy into is making it seem like he was in a happy relationship with Gina. Well that _and_ having a little fun on his vacation.

He sighed, “Maybe you’re right, Porter.”

“I’m always right.” She hummed whilst admiring London’s beautiful scenery.

Ricky scoffed, “ _Sure_.”

“For one, I knew that our trip would be miserable if you were sulking over your ex-girlfriend. You’re already putting a damper on my fun.” She tried to remain as quiet as she could with her classmates around her.

“I was not _sulking_.”

“You were definitely just sulking. I saw it with my own eyes.”

“Nope.”

“Fine.” She said. “Moping?”

“I have not been moping!”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Brooding? Pouting?”

“No and no. I was just… watching them.”

“Okay so you were watching them and sulking.” 

Ricky looked over at Gina with a glare on his face and she met his gaze with a small smirk displayed on her lips. “You know how annoying you are?”

“Sadly, no, I’ve never been told. Thanks for enlightening me though.” She sighed dramatically.

A small smile played on Ricky’s lips as they continued to walk down the city streets of London. He allowed himself to begin to actually take in the buzzing city around him.

The sidewalks were swarmed with bodies left and right and the streets were filled with cars and double-decker buses. It was such a different change compared to Salt Lake City—it felt more lively and picturesque than his hometown and Ricky loved it.

Finally they had arrived on the corner of Oxford Street. Their chaperones had told them to meet back in the same spot at approximately 10pm, which gave them more than enough time to shop and get some food. 

Carlos, who had been walking with his friend Seb the entire way, finally caught up to Ricky and Gina. Once they had met up with Nini and Elias, they had split from their other classmates and started to explore the popular shopping strip.

After a few minutes of walking down the street, Nini had practically dragged the entire group into H&M despite the tangled effort from Ricky, who did not want to go into the store. Once they were inside, she and Elias went in one direction and Carlos went off on his own. 

Ricky and Gina exchanged a glance and then dropped each other’s hands. They decided to explore the store a bit since it was huge and had a total of six floors.

After they were out of sight from their classmates, Ricky turned to Gina as they browsed through the first floor, “I kind of feel bad for Carlos. He has to be stuck with two couples on his trip.”

Gina shrugged, “I think he’ll be okay. He’s a big boy.” She paused for a moment. “You know, I feel like we’ll be here for a while. We might as well make the most of it.”

Ricky raised his brow down at her, “What do you mean by that?”

“I mean,” she began, “let’s put together the weirdest outfits together for each other. It could be fun.”

“Would we be trying on these said outfits?”

“Of course we’d be trying them on, Bowen. What else would we be doing with them?” Gina shook her head, looking around the store.

“Woah, geez, Porter…” He raised his hands in defense, “you really know how make it easy for a guy to pretend to be in love with you.”

“That’s what I’m here for, honey pot.” She smiled up at him. “Now, shoo, go find a fun outfit for me to try on.”

So he went one way and she went the other. The store was ginormous and it became super easy for Ricky to find some pieces of clothing that would make Gina look hilariously bad.

Ricky was on his way up to the fourth floor when he saw Nini and Elias on the third floor. Nini was trying on a pair of ridiculous sunglasses and taking a picture of herself on her phone.

He sighed feeling his heart start to yearn for her and then turned away from them. He was going to have fun. And dwell later.

Once the escalator made it up to the fourth floor, he went straight to the clothing racks and browsed through them. He laughed to himself as he tried to picture Gina in _any_ of the things he picked out, let alone all of the things he picked out. 

Then, he saw an enormous shoe section and headed straight towards it. He went up and down the aisles, searching for the best one to complete his outfit that he put together.

Considering he didn’t know Gina’s shoe size, he found a pair of large boots in a size 10 woman's. And finally he had his outfit picked out: A very large shirt, a pair of pants with a God-awful design, and to top it off a pair of boots that seemed too big.

Ricky smiled in triumph as he started to head towards the escalators to meet up with Gina. But he never made it to the escalators.

He was stopped by a familiar headstrong classmate of his. Carlos.

“Uh,” he let out. “Can I help you, Carlos?”

Carlos had a knowing look on his face, “I just wanted to know why you’re not with Gina.”

Ricky’s eyebrows furrowed, looking around the store, “Huh. You’re right. I’m not with Gina.”

Carlos rolled his eyes, “It just seems weird how the two of you already went your separate ways as soon as we all split up. That’s all.”

An amused smile spread onto Ricky’s lips, “Listen, Carlos, I appreciate your concern in the legitimacy of my relationship, but right now we’re just trying to have a little fashion show for each other. Gina’s idea.” He gestured down to all of the items in his hands.

The brunette looked down at everything in his hands. He paused for a moment, “I guess that makes sense.”

“Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to go watch my girlfriend make this hilariously terrible outfit look absolutely adorable. See you soon, Carlos.”

And then he was off, heading towards the escalators and down to where he had first met Gina. As they planned, she was standing there waiting for him with her outfit she had picked out in her hands.

“There you are.” She said, looking up from the items in her hands.

Ricky laughed lightly, “I would’ve been here a little sooner but Carlos stopped me and once again questioned me about our relationship.”

Gina shook her head in disbelief, “He really doesn’t believe us.”

“We’ll just have to give him something to believe.” 

Gina looked at him for a moment, until she turned her attention to the clothing in his hands. A small smile appeared on her face, “Let’s do it, Bowen.”

Ricky was kind of excited. He’d never really been one to go shopping and partake in an adventure like this. Whenever he would go shopping with Nini, he’d offer to hold her clothes or tell her if she’d looked good in whatever she picked out.

They walked over to the nearest changing room and had decided that Gina would put the outfit that Ricky picked out on first. He handed her the heap of clothes that was in his hands.

She went into the dressing room and silence fell over them as Gina changed. Though there were a few mumbles coming from the curly-haired girl in the changing room, complaining about whatever Ricky had picked out for her.

As she changed, Ricky racked his brain for what to talk about with her. Finally he cleared his throat, “Oh. I forgot to tell you… Nini texted me.”

“She texted you?” Gina called from the changing room.

“Yeah. When we got to the hotel this morning.”

“Well? What’d she say?” Curiosity was evident in her voice. 

Ricky bit down on his lip, not really wanting to tell Gina what she had really said. He couldn’t tell Gina that his ex-girlfriend hated her. That’d be cruel.

“She was just surprised that I was in a relationship already. She sounded a bit upset over it.”

After a few moments, Gina emerged from the changing room wearing her outfit, “That means our plan is already working! Also, I hate you so much for this.”

Ricky burst out laughing. She wore an oversized reverse-sequin top that read “Good Vibes only”, a pair of way too big blue jeans with long tassels hanging from the waist and a pair of silver knee-high boots. The boots looked way too big on her.

“Now this is the best thing I’ve ever seen.” Ricky said between his laughs. He took his phone out from his pocket and went to take a picture of her.

“What are you doing?” Gina asked.

“Taking a picture of you. You look horrible.”

Gina glared at him for a moment before Ricky snapped the picture. Truth be told, Ricky didn’t think that she looked horrible. Honestly, if this was considered a bad outfit for her, she must look good in anything.

“Alright, fun’s over. Your turn!”

And so Ricky changed into the outfit that Gina had chosen for him. Once he changed into the outfit and stood in the changing room, staring into the mirror he decided he was never coming out again.

“You’re sick for this, Porter.”

He heard her giggle lightly, “Come on out. I want to see.”

“Nope. No way. You’re going to give me hell.”

“I showed you my outfit, now show me yours!”

Ricky squeezed his eyes shut and let out a huge sigh before opening the changing room door. Gina already had her camera out, clearing taking a video of him as he walked out.

She laughed and covered her mouth with her hand, “Oh my God.”

Ricky shook his head, looking at himself in the mirror again. She had him in a tight cheetah-print shirt accompanied by the tightest and tiniest pair of jean shorts he had ever worn in his life. On his feet were a pair of yellow platform sneakers.

“Wow, I didn’t realize how skinny your legs were. Someone needs to go to the gym.”

Ricky rolled his eyes, “Very funny.”

“Let’s get a picture of us in our outfits. I should probably post something on my Snapchat story about us.” Gina said, moving over to the mirror that Ricky stood in front of.

Ricky wrapped his arm around Gina and put a peace sign up in the air as they posed for the picture. 

“I need to get out of these shorts. They’re tight as hell in places that do not see the sun.”

Gina groaned, “I don’t know if I needed to know that.”

He shrugged, sending a smile in her direction, “Since you’re my girlfriend now, yes yes you did.”

She shook her head in response, grabbed her clothes and then went into one of the dressing rooms. Ricky mirrored her actions and they both changed out of their outfits.

━━━━━━

Some five more hours went by and Ricky’s group had almost-literally shopped-til-they-dropped on Oxford Street when they all decided to go get dinner to conclude their first day in London.

After their H&M shenanigans, Ricky and Gina had met up with their other group members and went to about twenty more stores on the shopping strip. They visited department stores, boutiques, souvenir shops, and even furniture stores. 

And now they sat in Nandos, excitedly awaiting their food as they were starving and had never been to a Nandos in their life. They had ordered at the counter and in an attempt to make it seem like they were together, Ricky paid for Gina’s food.

Nini, Elias, and Carlos all sat at one end of the table and Ricky and Gina sat at the other end. There was tension in the air that they were able to ignore before when they were all shopping, but now that they are sitting with each other for dinner, it was very present and everyone could feel it.

Ricky had never wanted to disappear more. Now, he actually had to look and make conversation with both Nini and Elias. There really wasn’t any way out of it.

“I can’t believe how many shops there are on this street alone. It felt like we went to at least twenty stores and barely scratched the surface.” Ricky’s ex-girlfriend commented in an attempt to ease the tension that loomed in the air.

“I know.” Carlos laughed, playing with the paper straw in his drink. “I’m glad I got a few things though.”

Nini laughed, “The best thing that I bought today was a shirt that says ‘I heart London’ on it. I made Elias get one too.”

The blonde stuffed his face in his hands and a groan escaped past his lips, “Oh, no, I totally forgot about those.”

“I’m making him wear it tomorrow.” Nini said proudly, nudging his side playfully.

Gina stifled a laugh, “So you’re trying to make us look even more like crazy tourists?”

Ricky pressed his lips in a line and attempted to hold in a laugh. Nini’s smile faltered for a moment and she looked over at Ricky, who was trying to hold back his amusement and then sent her a small shrug in response. She looked away from him and back at Gina, “Yeah. I just… thought it'd be fun.” 

Elias cleared his throat and pulled the brunette into his side, “Babe, it’s a cute idea. I can’t wait to wear it.”

Ricky looked at him for a moment. He _really_ looked at him and began to wonder just what both Nini and Gina saw in him. He was super good looking, had decent style, and was one of many talents. Just like EJ Caswell, he was basically the “man” of the school and could get anyone he wanted. So why did he have to have Nini?

Maybe he could get any guy or girl if he wanted to, but for Ricky, it had always been Nini. He’d never taken interest in anyone else.

His thoughts were interrupted by Gina poking him in his side. He jumped slightly and turned his head to her. She gave him a knowing look that said _“Hey dummy, why are you staring at them?”_

“So, _Gina-rina_ ,” he started, the nickname just rolling off of his tongue, “what are you most excited to see tomorrow?”

She looked back at him, a glint of amusement in her eyes as he said her nickname, “Hmm… I don’t know I think I’m most excited to go on the London Eye.”

Ricky tilted his head back in agony and sighed audibly. He forgot about the London Eye. One of his biggest fears has to be heights- he’s always hated them ever since he was little and his parents forced him to go on a ferris wheel.

Gina tilted her head, “ _Babe,_ what’s wrong?”

“Ricky hasn’t told you?” Nini sat up in her seat.

_I’m never going to hear the end of this._

“Tell me what?” Gina raised her eyebrows, looking between both Ricky and Nini.

“Ricky is deathly afraid of heights. No matter how much I would beg him every single year, he would never go on the ferris wheel with me at the State Fair.” The brunette reminisced, a small smile playing on her lips as she gazed at Ricky. 

Though she was trying to contain her amusement at this new fact she learned about Ricky, she noticed that Nini was looking at him and took Ricky’s hand in her’s, “Aw, that’s so cute. I can’t believe you never told me that you were afraid of heights.”

Carlos laughed at Ricky’s fear, “You’ll be fine, Bowen. We’re going to be in a closed in area.”

“In the sky.” He grumbled in response.

“It’s not like it’s going to get stuck.” Carlos noted.

“See, now you’re jinxing it.” Ricky stared down at the table, playing with one of the napkins in front of him. 

Gina ran her thumb along Ricky’s knuckles in an attempt to comfort him, “You’ll have me there. It’ll be okay.”

He looked up at her and his lips parted. Her eyes were just as comforting as her voice was, which somehow allowed Ricky to feel a bit better. He swallowed nervously and nodded his head, his eyebrows threading together at how convincing she sounded. Nini was right; Gina _was_ a good actor. 

“Thanks, babe.” He put on a smile and then turned to his other classmates.

“Oh, God, get me out of here.” Carlos groaned. “Miss Jenn really set me up by putting me with two couples.”

“Aren’t you and Miss Jenn close?” Elias inquired. “Couldn’t you have pulled some strings with her?”

“Well, yes.” He responded. “But, at the time, I had no idea that Ricky and Gina were seeing each other so I figured it couldn’t be that bad.”

Elias nodded his head slowly and then looked towards the couple across from him. “You know, I would never in a million years expected Gina Porter and Ricky Bowen to get together.”

Gina sat up in her seat, “Trust me, neither did I. Ricky kind of took me by surprise and well, here we are.”

“Hey!” Ricky defended.

She looked at him with a small smile on her lips, “I’m sorry, but if you told me a year ago that I’d be dating you I would’ve laughed in your face.”

A laugh escaped Elias’ lips. Gina looked over at him and her smile grew a little brighter.

Ricky swallowed and lightly kicked her foot under the table. She looked back at him with a small glare in her eyes, “What? It’s true. You were with Nini… and just never thought it’d be in the cards.”

There were a few moments of silence after Gina had brought up Ricky’s prior relationship. It was like tension came oozing back into the room.

Carlos cleared his throat, “So, how _did_ one of East High’s most promising and brightest students end up with the ever-so charming Ricky Bowen?”

The pair exchanged a thankful glance that they had partially already discussed this. Ricky sat up, sending a quiet glare to Carlos who had sent him a backhanded compliment.

“Uh,” he started, a small laugh escaping his lips, “it started a few weeks ago when I was hanging around Red’s pizza place as I do pretty much every night he’s working and, well, Gina had walked in with this grumpy look on her face…”

He flashed Gina a smile, who was now frowning at his made up description of the situation. He continued, “and she went right up to the counter and said the order was for EJ. Red had told her that the order still had a few minutes to finish up so she had to sit at the counter. I had never really talked to her before–”

“Okay, just so you know, I was having a bad day and EJ wanted me to go into the shop to get the food… I was a little upset.” Gina chimed in, trying to defend her honor even if it didn’t even happen.

Ricky squeezed her hand playfully, “It’s okay that you were a little grumpy. It was cute.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Yeah. Yeah.”

“Anyway,” he started again, “she looked miserable. So, kind of knowing her, I started to make conversation and she was not having it. Honestly, she was kind of rude. But, eventually, I finally made her crack a smile.” Ricky looked at her lovingly, a glint in his eyes asking for her to continue with the story.

“But then I left once I got our food. I’m not that easy.” Gina said, looking over at the others. “But, next thing I know the next day, Ricky’s at my locker practically begging me for my number.”

Of course she’d paint him as the desperate one. 

“Yup. She just really caught my eye…”

“And here we are.” Gina wrapped her arm around his shoulder and squeezed him a little too tight. “In Europe.”

Their classmates sat there, processing the information that had just been told. 

Ricky watched as Nini eyed the two of them, but it didn’t seem to be in an unconvinced way. She was more trying to understand what they saw in each other and he took that as a small victory.

“Good for you guys.” Elias finally spoke, scratching the back of his neck.

Nini swallowed, looking between the two and then her eyes rested on Ricky and Gina’s intertwined hands. After a few seconds of staring, she put on a smile, “Gina, I love your bracelet. Is it a charm bracelet?”

Ricky, who was surprised that Nini even started a conversation with her “arch-enemy”, looked down at Gina’s wrist. She wore a dainty silver bracelet, with a few small charms hanging from it.

She looked down, a genuine smile appearing on her face as she looked at her bracelet. “Oh, thanks. And yeah, it is a charm bracelet. My mom got it for me a few years back.”

Nini forced a smile, “It’s really pretty.”

Gina smiled at her and then looked down at her bracelet fondly. Before anyone else could say anything, their food had finally arrived. Ricky and Gina let go of each other’s hands and they all started eating.

The rest of their time at dinner had been occupied by forced small talk and uncomfortable silence between the five teenagers. At times, Ricky would steal glances towards his ex-girlfriend as she engaged in conversation with her current boyfriend.

Ricky and Gina continued to make an effort to make their relationship seem believable. Once they were all finished eating, they decided to go to a few more shops before they had to return back with their other classmates. 

They stopped at a few souvenir shops along the strip on their way back. Ricky and Gina had stuck together and even were getting more comfortable around being with each other. 

Ricky had made a few jokes about the merchandise in some of the shops which earned small laughs from the girl he was fake-dating. Much to Ricky’s dismay and embarrassment, Gina had even forced him to take a few pictures holding up a few ‘I heart London’ and ‘Big Ben?’ condoms.

The night went on like this and Ricky was actually having fun with Gina. He even began to wonder if Gina was enjoying herself too.

And then, it was time to leave and go back to the hotel with the rest of their classmates. Once the whole group had met back up, they all walked back to their hotel. The streets were a lot less crowded than they were earlier in the day when they walked to Oxford Street.

Ricky noted how beautiful the city was at night.

They had finally made it back to their hotel and after another round of roll call, the chaperones had let them off to go to their rooms for the night. 

Ricky, who was still standing with his group, turned to Gina, “I’ll walk you up?”

She quirked an eyebrow before nodding her head, “Okay.”

They bid their goodnights to their group members and Ricky stole one last glance at Nini before they walked over to the elevator. Once they were in the elevator, both teenagers let out a sigh of relief.

“That was one hell of a long day.” Ricky sighed.

Gina nodded her head in agreement, “I agree. But, I’d like to think that our plan seems to be working.”

“You think?” 

“Yeah. Nini is totally worked up over us being together. She hates it.”

Ricky felt a small feeling of excitement start to emerge in his stomach.

Gina laughed at him, “Don’t get too excited, Bowen. We have a lot of work to do.”

He chuckled, nodding his head, “Yeah we do.”

 _Beep!_ The elevator sounded and the doors opened. The pair exited the elevator, seeing a few of their classmates standing in the hallway. 

They walked until they got to Gina’s room. Ricky scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, “Hey, uh, I just remembered that I don’t have your number… I think that could be pretty useful.”

“Aw, Bowen, you want my number? You’re catching feelings already?” The girl hummed in amusement.

Ricky scoffed amusedly, “You wish, Porter.”

After a few moments, Gina held her hand out, “Give me your phone, I’ll put my number in.”

And so he unlocked his phone and handed it to her. She took it and typed in her phone number in. Once she was done, she handed it back to him.

The two stood there awkwardly for a minute, not really knowing what to say. Gina looked up at him, “Well, I’ll see you in the morning, honey pot.”

Ricky looked back at her, clearly entertained by the pet name arising once again. He cracked a small smile, “Night, honey butter biscuit.”


	4. Gina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! tis me again here with rina in europe! this chapter is not *really* edited or proofread so bear with any mistakes. let me tell u it is super banter heavy so get ready for that lol. anyways i really hope you like this chapter- and maybe leave a comment too!

“We have a long day ahead of us, Bowen,” Gina said, looking up from her phone and turning to Ricky. “The Natural History Museum, Big Ben, _and_ the London eye?”

The two teenagers were sitting on the motorcoach bus on their way to start their day with the Natural History Museum. The morning had passed fairly quickly for everyone: they got up, got ready, went down to breakfast at 8:30 and now they were all headed for the museum. 

“Tomorrow’s an even longer day.” Ricky grumbled, sinking down into his seat and shutting his eyes.

“Okay, _one_ , today’s our first and last full day in London. We have to make the most of it. And _two_ , what got your panties in a twist?” Gina shut her phone off and turned her body fully towards Ricky.

He peaked his eyes open and sighed, “Red. He brought his portable CPAP machine - which I didn’t even know they made - and it’s incredibly loud. There’s this rainforest setting that—” he paused when he noticed that Gina couldn’t seem less interested, “Nevermind. I just couldn't seem to fall asleep. It didn’t help that I went to bed at almost 4.”

“Why did you go to sleep at _four_ in the morning?”

“We were watching some old British sitcom reruns… and then magically it was almost 4am.”

“Hm,” Gina replied, trying to assess the situation. “So because you made the poor decision to go to bed at the crack of dawn, I have to deal with your crankiness all day?”

Ricky sighed and closed his eyes again, resting his head back on the headrest, “you love spending your time with me, Porter. Cranky or not.”

“Cranky or not you’re still annoying.”

When Ricky didn’t respond, she took that as her cue to stop talking to him. He needed all the rest he could get, especially for Gina’s sake, who really didn’t want to put up with an exhausted and grumpy teenage boy for the remainder of the day. So, she put in her headphones and excitedly awaited their arrival at the museum.

She set her phone down on her lap and peered out the bus window at the city. She’s traveled to many places in her life, she’s lived in more than six different cities in the past 7 years due to her mom’s constant uprooting job, but yet she’s never seen a place that was so beautiful. 

Just compared to New York City, where her mother currently resides, it felt more friendly and welcoming than the crazy hustle and bustle of the Big Apple. It felt more historical, especially because of the architecture and even the people living here. 

It gave her a feeling of excitement in the pit of her stomach, making her yearn for more time to bask in the wonders of the city. The day prior she actually had fun exploring a small part of London with her classmates and wished their schedule today wasn’t so strict in what they do and where they go. Nonetheless, Gina was going to certainly make the most of it (even if she had to drag a crabby Ricky Bowen along with her). 

First stop was the Natural History Museum, which Gina was somewhat excited for. She’d visited the Natural History museum in New York with her mom the year prior when she was visiting during her summer vacation.

For just a moment, the memory of spending her summer with her mom caused her to desire being on this trip with her. For the last two years, she’s spent most of her time in Salt Lake City, where she was thousands of miles away from her mother. Sure, they’d spent her summers and Christmas together, but even then, the time away from one another still felt wrong. It didn’t feel right to be away from her mom.

But yet she made the choice to stay in Salt Lake City.

Gina could feel her longing to be with her mother kicking in so she instantly pushed the thought to the back of her brain. They were almost to the museum when Miss Jenn began calling attendance.

“Ricky Bowen.”

Gina averted her eyes from the scenery outside and looked at Ricky, who had somehow fallen asleep in the last ten minutes.

“…Ricky? Ricky Bowen?” Miss Jenn repeated.

Gina sighed and smacked the boy hard on his arm, causing him to jolt awake in a dazed state, “God, what the hell was that for?”

“They’re calling your name, dumbass.”

Ricky rubbed his arm tenderly, looking up at Miss Jenn who was at the head of the bus. 

“Rick–”

“Here!” He announced tiredly.

After Miss Jenn sent a small glare in his direction, he turned to Gina, “did you have to hit me _that_ hard?”

She smiled sweetly, rubbing his arm, “Aw, babe, would you have rather had me pinch you?”

Ricky pretended to think about it, “Hm, that’s a tough one. Let me weigh my options.”

“I could’ve punched you too. That one sounds like a great option.” 

“I’d rather not have to explain to my dad when I get home why I have bruises on my body. And that they’re from all from–”

“Gina Porter.” Miss Jenn called.

Gina took her eyes off Ricky and towards the front of the bus, and called, “Here.”

The drama teacher nodded her head and checked her clipboard and continued to call names, “…Alexander Prewitt… Erin Price…”

Gina turned back to Ricky, a small smirk on her face, “Maybe I should send you home with bruises. It might just drive Nini insane wondering where they came from.”

Ricky raised his eyebrows, “ _Oh?_ ”

She shrugged, “Just a thought.”

“Gina Porter’s mind is in the gutter, huh? Who would’ve thought?” 

She tapped his knee lightly, “You love it, _babe_.”

“I think I just threw up in my mouth.” 

A small laugh escaped Gina’s lips and she turned her head towards the window. The bus was slowing down which indicated that the group of travelers were arriving at the museum. 

Gina was admiring the museum and it’s structure in its entirety when she felt Ricky’s face dangerously close to hers as he was trying to look out the window. She turned her head, “Back up, Bowen, or I might actually give you one of those bruises.”

He rolled his eyes, backing up slightly, “and you say _I’m_ the cranky one.”

She looked down at their legs, their knees were touching and Ricky was still leaning fairly close to her. It felt a little weird to her, having him almost on top of her. She glanced back up at him, a small glare on her face, “do you have any concept of personal space?”

“Am I not allowed to look out the window?”

She went to say something else but she heard Miss Jenn’s bold voice boom through the bus, “Alright kiddos, we’re here! Once we get off the bus, you are to meet up with your groups and then we will head inside.”

Within five minutes, everyone had piled off of the bus. As soon as they got off the bus, Ricky had wrapped his arm around Gina’s shoulder as they made their way over to their other group members.

Gina felt a small sense of nervousness creep into her stomach as they approached Nini and Elias. Her eyes traveled over to Elias, who’s blonde hair fell messily on his forehead. He looked like he just walked off of the pages of a magazine. 

Her eyes wandered over to Nini, who leaned into him happily and even a little more so now that she had seen her and Ricky. 

“Hey.” Gina greeted, her eyes falling on Elias for a beat too long. 

“Hi.” He had replied with a small grin on his lips as he looked between Ricky and Gina. 

Normally, Gina really wasn’t the type to have an unrealistic crush on a boy but ever since she was paired up with Elias as her lab partner in AP Chem this year, she couldn’t help but form a little crush on him.

He was so sweet, kind and was able to make Gina laugh in the middle of an important lab assignment. And it was always fun for her to imagine them being something more than being just lab partners—even if she knew it’d never happen. 

“What’s up team?” Ricky squeezed Gina a bit tighter, causing Gina to tear her eyes away from the tall blonde across from them. She refrained from making fun of how he called their group “team.”

“Other than dreading spending my day with you, Ricky, not much!” Carlos flashed a smile in his direction.

“You’re just a bucket of sunshine, aren’t you, Carlos?” Ricky replied.

Gina watched as Carlos rolled his eyes, a small smile appearing on his lips. She then looked over at Nini, who was seeming to be looking straight at her. She couldn’t really tell what she was thinking, so Gina decided to look up at Ricky.

“Babe, are you feeling a little less crabby?” She hummed, bringing her hand up to caress Ricky’s cheek.

He didn’t seem fazed by this, and at least to Gina, it seemed to almost be more natural what they were doing. They can go from being frenemies and having playful banter one minute and the next entangle themselves like they are in a real relationship.

He rolled his eyes playfully, but before he could respond, Gina turned to their other group members, “he barely got four hours of sleep. He was up all night watching British sitcoms.”

“That probably wasn’t the best idea, man.” Elias laughed lightly, shaking his head. 

Ricky forced out a laugh, “Yeah… I didn’t think that one through.”

“It’s not even like you can take a nap anytime soon.” Nini attempted to put herself in the conversation.

“Yeah, right…” Ricky replied quickly, and then an awkward silence started to loom in the air. Gina could feel the unspoken tension between the former lovers and she couldn’t think it was more awkward. They used to date and now they can barely have a conversation.

Gina cleared her throat and leaned into Ricky further, “Who’s ready to look at some fossils?”

“I was actually doing some research on, you know, what to expect and there’s a whole exhibit on Charles Darwin and the Origin of Species… get ready to be thrown back into 9th grade biology.” Elias commented as an attempt to clear whatever was in the air.

“I barely passed 9th grade biology.” Carlos said.

“Same here. Mr. Hodgson almost failed me because I never showed up to lab since I… was usually smoking behind the bleachers with Red.” Ricky reminisced of his freshman year escapades with his best friend.

“That’s very on-brand of you, Bowen.” Carlos commented snarkily. 

“Well, hopefully the two of you can get a refresher course on what you missed in 9th grade bio.” Gina said, looking up at Ricky, who looked back down at her for a moment.

The corners of his lips turned up slightly, a small laugh escaping his lips, “Can’t wait.”

Gina turned her head towards their group. Before anyone could say anything, their chaperones announced that it was time to head into the building and start to explore the museum.

Once they were in the building, the chaperones got them checked in and then all listened to their routine lecture about how they were all adults and to be on their best behaviors, they all went their separate ways to tour the museum. 

The museum was breathtakingly stunning with its high arched ceilings and memorizing design. It almost felt as if they were in a cathedral with the marble floors and the carefully crafted stairs and railings. Gina couldn’t help but take pictures so she could show her mom.

Her group decided to visit the mammal exhibit first and then go from there. Ricky had lazily put his arm around her again as they walked towards the exhibit.

“You think at night this place comes alive and turns into a whole Night at the Museum type situation? You know, like, a Theodore Roosevelt on his horse and a tiny Owen Wilson running around here at night… Cause that’d be sick. Man, I wish Red was around so I could talk to him about that.” Ricky started, looking around at all of the museum scenery as they walked.

Gina, who was looking at the map, looked up at him quizzically, “I’ve never seen that movie but I _highly_ doubt that even happens. And am I not good enough company for you, your highness?”

“So what I’m hearing here, is that I’m your Prince?”

Gina scoffed, her eyes moving down to the map again, “God, _no_. You’re just very high maintenance.”

“I’m high maintenance? How? I literally just said that I wish my best friend was here with me.”

“All I’m saying is that you conned me into being your,” she looked around, now beginning to whisper, “ _fake-girlfriend_.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m high maintenance. Also, woah, woah, woah, wait, back up—you’ve _never_ seen Night at the Museum?” 

“No. Why are we still on that?”

“Because it’s a classic? A _timeless_ classic! With an iconic cast too. Ben Stiller, Robin Williams, Owen Wilson…”

“It’s not a classic. I would’ve seen it by now.” Gina replied nonchalantly.

“Are you kidding? Everyone’s seen Night at the Museum!” Ricky exclaimed, looking around for his other classmates. He spotted their group members a bit ahead of them, “Yo, team!”

There it was again. Team. Weirdo.

They all turned to him, “Have you seen Night at the Museum?”

“Yes, Ricky,” Nini was the first to respond, “you only made me watch it five times Freshman year.”

After, both Elias and Carlos responded that, yes, they had seen the film. 

“See!” Ricky grinned down at Gina, “a classic.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Yeah, but it seems like you forced Nini to watch it.”

“I might’ve forced her, but she cried at the end every single time. Hence, a classic. Mark my words. Once we get home, I’m going to make you watch it with me. And the second and the third.”

There were _three_ Night at the Museum movies?

She widened her eyes, “and what makes you think I’ll be hanging out with you once we get home?”

“Because by the end of this trip you’re going to realize just how much you like spending time with me.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“Watch, as soon as you get home you’re going to be like “Huh, I kind of miss Ricky. He’s a blast to hang out with and I miss his beautiful face.”” 

Gina scoffed, “In your dreams, Bowen. I’m going to run as far as I can from you when I get back home. Also, when did you suddenly get into a better mood?”

“Because you got me hyped about Night at the Museum.”

“You’re literally a little kid, aren’t you?”

“No shame in that, Gina-rina. We’re all kids at heart.”

Gina paused for a moment, looking around to see if anyone was around. When no one was around it was usually ‘Porter’ or the occasional ‘honey butter biscuit’. This was different.

She really didn’t know how to respond to that, so she didn’t. And before she knew it, they were finally in the mammals exhibit where they were greeted by large statues of different mammal skeletons.

The pair of teenagers started to walk around the exhibit and examine each of the mammal skeletons, look at their fossils and read over the information for each of them. It was all actually very interesting to Gina, at least.

After ten minutes of silence, the pair stood in front of an elephant statue. Gina was reading about elephants and their fossil relatives when she turned to Ricky, who was staring up at the elephant statue, “In your movie, would this elephant come alive at night?”

His eyes lit up, “Yes. Yes it would.”

Gina smiled slightly at his reaction and turned back to reading about African elephants. A few moments later, the two teenagers ended up standing in front of a moose statue.

She was pretty invested in reading about different antlers and horns, when Ricky laughed lightly next to her. She turned to him with her brows raised, “What’s so funny?”

“What do you call a cross between a hippopotamus and something that is not a moose?”

“Are you really making a moose joke right now?”

“Come on, I’m really bored, I have to pass time somehow.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “What do you call it?”

“A hippo-not-a-moose.”

Gina stared at him for a moment. She tried to hide the small laugh that was bubbling in her chest, but ultimately failed, “Where did you even find that?”

“There is this thing called the internet.”

“Well, it is far too clever for it to be something that you came up with.”

“I’m wounded.”

The next hour went a lot like this: Gina trying to stay interested in the exhibit while she had Ricky following her around, coming up with any way to cure his boredom. Luckily, they had stayed far enough away from their other group members to not have to put up their fake-dating act.

Once they all made it through the mammals exhibit, much to Ricky’s dismay, their group had decided to visit the bird exhibit since it was close by. The bird exhibit was down a wide hallway with detailed high ceilings. Gina couldn’t believe just how beautiful a _bird_ exhibit could be. 

Since it was just a hallway and they could easily see and hear everything that Nini, Elias and Carlos were doing, Ricky put his arm loosely around Gina.

They read about each and every bird that was in the cases and Gina was a bit worried that Ricky would fall asleep on her arm. This wasn’t exactly the most interesting exhibit. 

“Birds. I hate birds.” Ricky mumbled, looking at the time at his phone.

“Birds hate you.” Gina replied while trying to read about the origin of owls.

“I don’t want their love.” 

“Lucky birds.” 

After their group was finished touring the bird displays, they then went to the Earth Hall where they learned more about different fossils, volcanos, and even mountains. 

Ricky and Gina were able to be away from each other for these displays. Ricky walked around some of the exhibits on his own and at his own pace. Gina’s mind had begun to wonder if he was doing any spying on his ex-girlfriend (he probably was).

Once everyone had gone to the Human Evolution gallery, Ricky had found his way back to Gina. The two of them wandered the exhibit in silence, while they were examining different fossils and skulls of their ancient ancestors. 

After a while, Gina had looked over at Ricky, who was covering his mouth and attempting to hide the yawn that was escaping his mouth. Halfway through the yawn, their eyes met and she sighed audibly.

“Bowen, you can’t at least pretend to be interested in this? We’re here at least another hour.”

“I can’t help that I, for one, got almost four hours of sleep _and_ that this exhibit is boring as hell.”

“Well, that’s a you problem.”

“Come on, Porter, you can’t tell me that human evolution actually interests you.”

She laughed lightly, shaking her head, “I mean to a certain extent it does.”

“No wonder I barely passed bio… this stuff… it’s just so dull and boring.” He said, sighing. “I could really go for a blunt right now.”

Gina had almost forgotten about Ricky’s reputation of being the school’s stoner. “You can’t last ten days without smoking?”

“I can but it doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

After their group finished the Human Evolution gallery, they went to tour their final exhibit in the museum. The five of them walked together through the hallways, occasionally passing some of their other classmates, until they made it to the entrance of the dinosaur exhibit.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me that we’re going to the dinosaur exhibit?” Ricky had suddenly exclaimed. 

Gina looked up at him, lifting her eyebrow, “ _Now_ you’re excited? For dinosaurs?”

Ricky looked down at her as if she had three heads, “and you’re not excited to learn about dinosaurs? Dinosaurs are dope!”

“I agree.” Elias said. “This is probably going to be the best exhibit yet.”

Gina watched Ricky’s smile falter for a moment, before nodding his head, “See? It’s something that actually interests me, babe.”

Attempting to come off as playful, she rolled her eyes, “Fine. Let’s go learn about dinosaurs, cutie.”

Gina ignored the feeling of Nini staring right at her and smiled right up at Ricky, who put his arm around her shoulders. They bid their goodbyes to their group members and walked through the entrance of the exhibit.

They turned right and immediately went over to the glass case with some type of dinosaur skull inside. Within the few minutes they had been there, Ricky had not stopped talking about each dinosaur fossil they had come across.

“Oh shit—this is a skull of a Triceratops? I think?” He looked down at the plaque and then immediately laughed. “I was right. A triceratops. Did you know that Triceratops are herbivores?”

Gina looked at him as if he had two heads, “I think I’ve heard something like that before.” This is the most excited she had ever seen him (considering she’s only known him a few days). 

“Hm,” He said, while looking at the skull inside the glass case, “I think I read somewhere that T. Rexs preyed on Triceratops… I wonder if there’s anything about T. Rexs here.” 

Gina laughed, shaking her head, “Jeez, Bowen, who knew you were such a nerd over dinosaurs?”

He looked down at her and rolled his eyes, “I had a _huge_ dinosaur phase when I was younger. I can’t help it.”

She thought back to his comment earlier about how “we’re all kids at heart” and she smiled lightly, looking away from him and then moved onto the next display case. 

This went on for a while, basically with every single display case they saw of a dinosaur, Ricky would excitedly spit out a few facts as Gina stood by and watched. She actually learned quite a bit about dinosaurs from him and the exhibit itself.

Ricky was quite memorized with the Iguanodon and Baryonyx dinosaur fossils, until Gina tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the rather large dinosaur skeleton at the head of the exhibit, “Is that a T. Rex?”

“Uh, hell yeah it is!” He quickly made his way over to the skeleton display. 

He was like a little boy in a candy store looking up at the large Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton. She couldn’t believe how he hated every single exhibit, complained in each and every one, but once he saw a dinosaur skeleton he almost fainted (literally). 

Gina shook her head, opening her phone and snapping a picture of him looking up at the skeleton on display. 

He looked over at Gina, a small smile spreading across his lips as he walked over to her, “Now this,” he pointed up at the skeleton, “is _sick_. I wish Red was here to see this with me.”

“Is he obsessed with dinosaurs too? Why is that not a surprise?”

He nodded his head proudly, “Of course. Red and I are obsessed with the Jurassic Park movies—we have movie marathons all the time.”

Gina laughed, “You guys are such nerds.”

“We’re not nerds! Have you ever seen the Jurassic Park movies? Do I have to add that to the list?”

“I’ve actually seen the original three.”

Ricky went to say something, but something caught his gaze behind Gina. She watched as his eyes narrowed and his face turned from an overly-excited expression to sadness clouding his features. 

She followed his gaze behind her to see Nini, alone, reading one of the plaques on a display. 

“Hey, Nini!” Gina called over to the brunette, who was admiring an old dinosaur fossil of some sort. She perked up and Gina waved her over to them.

“What’s up?”

“Can you take a picture of me and Ricky?”

Gina felt Ricky look down at her quickly as in “why did you just ask my ex-girlfriend to take a picture of us?”

“Ricky’s obsessed with this T. Rex skeleton and won’t shut up about it. I already got like twenty pictures of him in front of it but I think it would be just so cute if we got one together! Don’t you think, Nini?”

Nini swallowed uncomfortably and forced out a laugh, looking around to see if Elias was around, then looked back at them. She nodded her head, “Yeah, totally… that’s so… _really_ cute. Sounds like Ricky.”

Gina smiled in triumph, especially after seeing how uncomfortable Nini looked to be even talking to the two of them alone. Elias must have wandered off somewhere else without her.

She held out her phone for Nini to take. Once she did, Gina grabbed (more like yanked) Ricky, and pulled her close into him (with force, might she add). She felt Ricky lean into her and his arm slide around her waist.

It was a weird feeling; being this close to Ricky, one that was hard to describe. She ignored it and smiled for the picture, leaning her head on his shoulder like she had countless times before. 

Once Nini snapped the picture, she started to point the phone down. Gina furrowed her eyebrow, trying to think of another way to really tug and Nini’s heartstrings. 

She felt Ricky pulling away from her so she squeezed his arm to stay beside her, “Wait, Nini, can you take just _one_ more?”

The brunette girl nodded her head stiffly and brought the phone up to take another photo. Ricky smiled again and then in one swift movement, Gina brought her lips up to Ricky’s cheek. 

She felt Ricky freeze underneath her, and after a moment she let go. Now _that_ felt weird, having their faces that close to one another. She tried to put a smile on and then turned to Nini, who looked like she wanted to get out of there.

Nini held out her phone for Gina to take. She watched carefully as her face twisted in a look of both discomfort and disgust. It was almost humorous; the fact that she couldn’t even hide how upset it made her. For someone who got the lead in last year’s musical, she could _not_ act. 

Gina let go of Ricky and grabbed her phone, scrunching her nose, “Thank you _so_ much. I gotta get a good one for Instagram, you know?”

She forced out a laugh, “Definitely.” After a few moments of silence, she looked back at Ricky, then to Gina, clearing her throat, “Um, I’m gonna get back… to Elias. He’s probably looking for me.”

“Right. See you later!” Gina smiled sweetly, then turned back to Ricky, who mumbled a goodbye to his ex-girlfriend.

He looked back at Gina with a glare. She rolled her eyes in response, “What?”

Ricky looked around, and then took Gina by the wrist, and pulled her towards a place where they could talk privately. Gina laughed, wondering why he was overreacting so much. 

“What’s the problem, Bowen? Are you that scared of me kissing you?”

Ricky scoffed, “No! I don’t care—I mean, I _do_ care but remember our rule? Rule number three? No kissing?”

“I’m not actually going to kiss you!” Gina whisper-yelled. “Besides, I kissed you on the cheek! It barely even counts as a kiss.”

“Yeah, but did you see how upset it made her?”

“God, Bowen, that’s the point. You know, rub some salt into her wound… make it hurt, we’re trying to make her jealous—remember?”

“Of course I remember! But I don’t know… it just seemed a little harsh. Maybe even a little evil. Especially after seeing her reaction.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “If I’m your fake-girlfriend I should at least be able to kiss you on the cheek. Look, I didn’t actually kiss you… I’m sure that would hurt a hell of a lot worse than what I just did.” She paused. “Anyway, my little stunt seemed to work wonders. We’re definitely convincing her.”

After a moment of thinking about it, Ricky bit down on his lip and nodded his head. “Yeah… yeah. I guess you’re right.”

“You’re forgetting that I’m always right!” A small grin appeared on her lips.

He rolled his eyes, “You really need to stop with that.”

“ _Oh this is gold._ ”

Both their heads snapped in the direction of the familiar voice: Carlos. 

Gina’s lips parted as she saw their classmate, standing a few feet away from them with his arms crossed. He stood there with a look of complete surprise across his face. 

“Carlos–” Ricky sputtered out.

He shook his head in disbelief, “You know, after I ran into you yesterday in H&M I gladly believed that the two of you were actually a couple. But, this… wow. This is really something.”

Gina couldn’t believe that they had just let themselves get caught by Carlos, out of all people. He was the only other person in their group, who now had the power to just blow up their plan any second if he really wanted to. 

“Carlos, you can’t–” Gina began, but he cut her off. 

He looked around, “Tell anyone?”

“Yes. You can’t tell _anyone_.” Ricky said quietly, his eyes scanning the rest of the exhibit room. There wasn’t anyone else to worry about in sight.

“I really can’t believe the two of you. I mean, poor Nini. She seems to be so distraught over this.” 

Gina crossed her arms, “That is the point, Carlos.”

He paused for a moment, eyeing the two of them carefully, “Now I understand why Ricky here would want to do this, but what's in it for you, Gina? Is he paying you?”

“It’s none of your business.” Gina replied coldly. He was really starting to get on her nerves.

“Hm. Very interesting.” He nodded his head slowly. 

Ricky stepped forward, “Dude, you cannot tell anyone. I really want Nini back and this is kind of like a last resort thing, so please just don’t mess this up for me.”

Gina sighed lightly, looking from Ricky to Carlos, “And if you tell anyone, and I mean anyone - even Seb or EJ - I will personally make sure that you won’t make it to graduation.”

She hoped her threat was enough to keep his mouth shut. They usually help her in these situations.

His eyes widened slightly, and then he sighed, “Fine. But don’t expect me not to have some fun with this. Now it makes this trip ten times more exciting.”

“Wow, I’m so happy for you.” Gina mumbled. She turned to Ricky, giving him a dirty look, “How did you not see him standing there?”

He frowned, “How did I not see him? How did _you_ not see him?”

“You’re the one who took us in this open exhibit room! It’s your fault–”

“It’s _my_ fault? There’s two of us here and if you didn’t kiss me on–” Ricky stopped mid-sentence once he heard a laugh escape Carlos’ lips.

“I prefer _this_ Ricky and Gina. You’re much more entertaining to be around.”

A groan escaped Gina’s lips, “Shut up, Carlos.”

He pressed his lips together, then looked down at his phone, “As much as I would like to stay here and watch the two of you go back and forth… we have to be back at the main entrance in ten minutes.” 

━━━━━━

The group of East High students left the museum about twenty minutes later and headed to a local sit-down restaurant for a late lunch before they headed to visit Big Ben. 

Ricky and Gina were still on edge knowing that Carlos had recently gained knowledge of their little arrangement. The two of them continued to act like a couple as much as they could while ignoring the knowing eye of their group member for the rest of the afternoon until they left for their next destination. 

The drive to see Big Ben was short and their bus let off on the Vauxhall Bridge. The students got off and then their chaperones once again began calling off their names. 

Once roll call was finished and the chaperones let them off, Ricky turned to Gina, who was looking up at the clock tower, “This is kind of underwhelming.”

She laughed, “It’s kind of cool. But I agree… I thought it’d be bigger.”

“Hey guys!” Their heads followed the voice of Big Red, and their eyes landed on him and Ashlyn, who were walking towards them. 

“Hey man!” Ricky ran over to his best friend and put his arm around him, “How’d you like the museum?”

Big Red shrugged, “It was actually pretty fun—especially the dinosaur exhibit! Turns out EJ is really into dinosaurs too.” 

Gina couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. How is everyone into dinosaurs? Is it like a universal phase for guys?

She turned to Ashlyn, sighing, and whispered, “Carlos knows.”

The redhead widened her eyes, “He knows? How’d he figure it out?”

Gina glared over at the curly haired boy, “That dumbass decided to confront me about kissing him on the cheek in front of Nini in broad daylight. I was just trying to make her jealous.”

Ashlyn tilted her head in surprise, “Interesting… so… so you kissed _him_ on the cheek?”

“Yes but only to make Nini jealous! It’s literally what I’m here for.”

Ashlyn nodded her head slowly, “Okay… So what are you going to do about Carlos?”

“I guess just try to keep his mouth shut as best as we can.” Gina shrugged, looking around her surroundings for Carlos. She saw him leaning on the railing of the bridge while talking to Seb. “I don’t know… I just hope he doesn’t use it against us in any way.”

“Sometimes Carlos can be intense… you really don’t know what you’re getting into with him.” Ashlyn commented, looking over at him too. 

“Anyway,” Gina sighed, “how was your museum tour?”

“It was actually pretty chill. Kourtney and EJ were pretty much talking to each other the whole time, so I was hanging with Big Red most of the time.”

“Ah,” Gina said, looking up at Big Ben, “how’s EJ’s plan coming along? You know, with Kourt? I haven’t gotten to talk to him in a while.”

“I think it’s going as planned. She’s definitely into him, but I have no idea what she even sees in him. He’s such a pain in the ass,” Ashlyn joked, taking out her phone and taking a picture of the river and the Elizabeth Tower.

Gina laughed, “I agree. _Imagine_ having a crush on EJ Caswell.”

Ashlyn chuckled then held out her phone in front of her. “Hey, Gi, get a picture with me.” 

The two girls got together and posed for a picture, attempting to get Big Ben in the picture with them as best as they could. They laughed together at the pictures that they took and Gina turned to her, “I wish we could spend more of the trip together rather than just being roommates.”

“I know… me too. But it can’t be that bad spending all your time with Ricky.”

Gina rose her brows, “You’re kidding. It’s torture.”

Ashlyn shrugged, “From what I can see, the two of you have fun together.”

She looked over at Ricky, who was pointing at something in the distance for Big Red to look at. She looked back at her friend, “I don’t know what I thought of Ricky Bowen before this trip but he’s definitely more annoying than I thought he’d be.”

“I think it’s good for you, you know hanging out with him. You’ll have one more friend to add to your list next to me and EJ.”

Gina sighed, “Yeah, well, I’m okay with the two of you being my only friends. I don’t want to dread leaving another person behind in Salt Lake once I leave.”

She noticed her close friend start to frown at the thought of Gina leaving Salt Lake City for good so she took her hand and squeezed it, “We’ve got time, Ash. Let’s not think about that right now. Look! We’re in front of Big Ben!” She giggled.

A small smile crept onto Ashlyn’s lips, “You’re right.”

“Hey friends.” Big Red greeted, with Ricky by his side.

The girls turned to them.

“Hey.” Ashlyn and Gina both said in unison.

“I’m pretty sure that we’re going to be heading over to the London Eye soon. And I’m pretty sure we’re walking.” Big Red mentioned, turning to Ricky, who looked a bit uneasy. “You excited, dude?”

He glared at his best friend, feigning excitement, “So excited!” 

Gina chuckled, “Are you seriously that scared of heights?”

He sent her a small glare too, “Yes, yes I am.”

It couldn’t possibly be that bad, especially since they’ll be in an enclosed box. She ignored this and decided to take a look at her surroundings—her classmates were taking pictures all around them while their chaperones all chatted among themselves.

After another twenty minutes of conversing with her friends and taking pictures of the city around them, it was finally time to head to the London Eye. Their chaperones told them to gather in their groups as they walked, so unfortunately they had to say goodbye to Big Red and Ashlyn. 

Ricky involuntarily put his hand in Gina’s once he saw Nini and Elias walking towards them. Gina looked down at her hand. Ricky had intertwined their fingers.

Carlos had made his way towards them too. He had a grin on his face that looked exceptionally wicked now that he knew of Ricky and Gina’s act. 

“Hey beautiful people.” He beamed, rocking on his feet.

Nini laughed, “What got you in such a good mood?”

Carlos glanced at the pair quickly and then back to Nini and shrugged, “I’m just in an exceptionally good mood, Nini. I think it was the museum… I just got to learn so many _new_ things.”

She paused and looked up at Elias, who shrugged slightly. She looked back at him and laughed again, “Alright. Good for you, Carlos.”

He nodded and glanced over at Ricky and Gina, “So how’s the happy couple? Ready to go on the ginormous Ferris wheel?” 

“We’re good. Thanks, Carlos.” Gina said sweetly, staring right into his eyes. She was trying to send him a telepathic message to (kindly) fuck off. 

“Do you have to remind me of this Ferris wheel?” Ricky laughed nervously, his eyes flickering over to Nini for a moment.

“Oh, I almost forgot you’re scared of heights.” Carlos replied.

“Thanks for the reminder. I think everyone wants to remind me of that today.”

“Babe, it’s going to be fine.” Gina squeezed his hand, and looked up at him with a warm smile. She could tell was starting to get nervous but nodded his head.

A few more minutes passed with small talk among their group, until it was time to start walking. The walk started out with conversation among the teenagers and then turned into a comfortable silence as everyone took in the beautiful city.

It was a peaceful walk until Gina realized the severity of Ricky’s fear of heights. She could feel his hand getting clammy as they neared the large Ferris wheel. He was clearly uneasy, nervousness basically taking over his whole body.

“You need to calm down. We’re not even there yet.”

“Well I can see it from here and it’s pretty damn high, Porter.”

“We’re going to be inside a ball that’s attached to it. It’s safe, Bowen.”

“That’s what they all say.” He mumbled, dropping his hand from hers and wiping his palm on his jeans.

Gina frowned at the loss of contact and sighed, “Listen, if you don’t want to go on, you don’t have to. I’ll even stay off with you…”

Ricky looked down at her and his lips parted. He shook his head, “No… no. I’m not letting you miss it! You said you were most excited for this. Besides, we already paid for the tickets so it’d just be a waste of fifty dollars, alright?”

“But you might pass out? That’s not worth it.”

“I’m _not_ wasting fifty dollars. I’ll just close my eyes the entire time.”

“For a half an hour?”

“It’s a half _hour_?”

“How long did you think it was?”

“Ten minutes!” He exclaimed, looking up at the large Ferris wheel that they were nearing with wide eyes. 

Gina shook her head and let out an audible sigh, “You can survive this thirty minutes, Bowen.”

The entire group stopped once they were at the entrance. They were a large group among all of the other tourists who were visiting the infamous Ferris wheel. Their chaperones gave them the run down: stay with your group, once you get off the wheel meet in this same spot for the rest of the class, and be on your best behavior.

So the group of teenagers got into the line with their groups. After getting their tickets scanned and checked in, they all waited for their turn to get into a capsule. 

Gina could feel the eyes of Carlos on her while they were in line as Ricky bounced nervously on his feet. Also, she had noticed Nini giving Ricky a sympathetic look since she knows how much he hates the idea of Ferris wheels.

After a ten minute wait, Gina and the rest of her group had made their way into one of the capsules. They were accompanied by another group from their class, who none of them really talked to.

Ricky immediately went straight to the bench in the middle of the capsule. His knee was bouncing up and down in a nervous manner and Gina sighed, following him over to the bench and sitting right next to him.

The capsule doors closed and the Ferris wheel began moving. 

Gina’s eyes met Carlos’ who smiled at her knowingly from the railing in front of the glass window. She rolled her eyes and looked out the window from where she sat. The sun was lower in the sky as they were nearing the evening and the city lights were starting to become noticeable.

“You,” Ricky started, “you can go up to the railing… I’m fine.”

Gina raised her brow. Ricky nodded his head to reassure him that he would be fine (for now). She got up and walked over to Carlos, who was taking pictures of the city in front of them as they got higher in the sky.

She took her phone out and began to snap pictures of the city. She sent a quick text to her mom along with a picture to let her know what they were doing. 

“Shouldn’t you be sitting with your boyfriend?” Carlos asked, breaking their silence.

Gina looked over at him with a glare, “He’s fine.”

“He’s sweating buckets.”

Gina looked back at him and then she lifted her eyes to look at Nini and Elias. The tall blonde had his arm snaked around Nini’s waist, while she had her head resting on his shoulder as they viewed the city. They looked like they were having a light-hearted conversation while they laughed together. Gina ignored the jealousy that was creeping up on her neck and averted her eyes back to Ricky.

He was trying to preoccupy himself with his phone so she turned back to the view in front of her. 

For the next ten minutes, the capsule had stopped a few times and then started back up, still rising higher in the sky. Occasionally, Gina would make her way over to Ricky to check on him but he would assure her that he was fine, even if he looked uneasy.

After a while, their capsule was nearing its highest point and Gina decided to sit down next to Ricky despite his pleas not to. 

The wheel had stopped at its highest point. Ricky was staring down at the floor of the capsule, trying not to look at the view all around him. His knee was bouncing and Gina could see his hands shaking.

She genuinely had no clue how to calm him down, which was making her almost as nervous as him. She let out a deep breath and scanned the room. Her brown eyes were met with Nini’s worried gaze as she looked between both her and Ricky.

Gina sent a small smile her way and then looked at Ricky. She noticed his breathing was uneven, so she gently set her hand on his back and began involuntarily rubbing it slowly. 

“Stop freaking out.” Gina whispered, sitting down next to Ricky, who was doubled over as if he was in a large amount of pain. “We’re not _really_ stuck. It’s just stopping so we can see the view.”

“ _I know_ ,” he breathed out, “but how is that supposed to help my problem? We’re hundreds of feet high in the sky - in a small ass glass box may I add - that could just fall off the hinges of this thing and then we all could fall to our death!”

Gina bit down on her lip. He was literally in panic mode and she didn’t know how to help him. She looked around him and was receiving judging glances from her classmates in the other group. She sent them a “mind your business” glare and turned back to Ricky.

She sighed, “It’s okay. We’re not going to fall to our death. I promise.”

He looked up at her, “And how do you know that?”

“Because I know, okay?”

He let out a heavy breath and closed his eyes shut. Gina sat a bit closer to him and set her free hand on his knee. He tensed a bit under her touch.

“ _Ricky,_ ” she said softly, “look at me.”

After a few seconds he looked up. 

“Just keep looking at me. You’re fine.”

So he did. He looked at her and swallowed nervously. Gina wasn’t sure how she felt staring at Ricky like this, it just caused a weird feeling to form between them. In a way, it felt intimate.

“Just breathe.” She whispered. “Breathe with me.”

“Inhale.” She inhaled and he followed her lead.

“Exhale.” She exhaled and so did he. The two of them did this for the next minute. Gina had hoped that it was calming his anxiety.

After a while, she felt him become less tense underneath her touch. With every deep breath, she felt him become calmer. And after a while, he broke their eye contact and was doing this breathing exercise on his own. 

The next few minutes passed and the wheel had begun to move again, this time descending from their height in the sky. Gina sat with Ricky the rest of the way, until they were close to the ground and Ricky was able to stand up from the bench.

She nudged him, “You did it, Bowen.”

He let out a breathy laugh, “Yeah—barely.”

Gina rolled her eyes and went to say something but Nini and Elias had appeared next to them as they waited to get off of the wheel. 

“Hey, man, you alright?” Elias asked, patting Ricky hard on the shoulder. 

“Uh, yeah… yeah. Thanks.” Ricky forced a smile, his eyes wandering over to Nini. “Not a big fan of heights… obviously.” 

“At least it’s over, you know?” Nini said stiffly, a small smile on her lips.

“Yeah, you’re right.” He nodded his head, his eyes lingering on Nini for a moment. Gina was about to make a fake-girlfriend move but the doors of the capsule had opened and everyone exited the wheel.

Now it was time to wait for the rest of their classmates. Ricky and Gina had spotted a bench to sit on while they waited. 

As they sat down, they were greeted by Carlos. He had a small smirk playing on his lips. 

“What now, Carlos?” Ricky asked, sighing, and sitting back on the bench. 

“Oh nothing… just wanted to say that was a pretty realistic stunt you pulled back there.”

“Because it _was_ real. He wasn’t faking his–”

“Oh I know.” Carlos said, crossing his arms. “It’s just that the two of you almost convinced me that you were a couple. Again.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “It’s called acting.”

“Didn’t look like acting to me.”

“Dude, she was basically helping me through my anxiety, it's nothing.” Ricky said sitting up on the bench. 

“Alright. Fine…” he trailed, looking around and tapping his foot on the ground. “Oh, there’s Seb. If you’ll excuse me I’m going to go talk to him.”

“Wait Carlos!” Gina called after him as he started to walk away. He turned to her, “Remember not to tell a soul or–”

“I won’t be making it to graduation. Got it.”

After twenty minutes passed, all of their classmates had gotten off of the Ferris wheel and it was time to get going to dinner. Their chaperones let all of them go off and choose where they wanted to go for dinner, as long as they stayed with their designated groups. 

The next two hours went by fairly quickly. Their group had met up with Ashlyn and Big Red’s group for dinner. Gina sat with Ashlyn and EJ, while Ricky sat with Big Red. 

Gina had missed just spending time with Ashlyn and EJ, even if it had only been two days away from them. It felt nice to sit down with them, talk about their days and what their experiences have been in London so far. 

Once dinner was over and they shopped around the near gift shops for some last minute London souvenirs, it was finally time to head back to their hotel for the night. The ride back to the hotel was quiet, at least for Ricky and Gina, as Ricky was exhausted since he was still running on three and a half hours of sleep.

As everyone gathered in the hotel, without a word, Ricky had walked Gina up to her room again. She didn’t mind though, it was one of their only times where they were actually alone and away from the judging eyes of their peers. 

“That was quite the eventful day,” Gina said in the elevator.

Ricky laughed tiredly, “Oh yeah. It was fun though.”

“I agree.” She said as the doors opened to her floor. The two exited the elevator and made their way down the hallway silently.

Gina opened her wallet and grabbed her room key, turning to Ricky with a small smile, “Night.”

He nodded slowly, “Night.”

She turned to open her door.

“Hey, Gina,”

She turned back to him, her brows raised, "Yeah?"

“Uh, thanks for what you did for me earlier. You know, calming me down on the Ferris wheel. It really helped.”

After a few moments, she nodded her head, a small smile playing on her lips, “Get some sleep, Bowen. We’re headed for Berlin tomorrow.”


	5. Ricky

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hiii! just want to apologize in advance at how long this chapter is... i just had so much ground to cover and also please excuse the kind of awkward pacing. 
> 
> other than that i hope u all enjoy another chapter of rina in europe <3

“Seriously, Red, who the hell are you texting? Your phone has been buzzing nonstop the past hour!” Ricky exclaimed as he shoved his clothes back into his suitcase.

Red peeked his head out from the bathroom, “That’s none of your business, my dear Ricky.”

“You’ve been keeping this secret from me the past two days and I’m dying over here, dude! Just give me something.” The boy groaned, walking over to the nightstand and grabbing his phone charger.

“Give me a few more days, dude, I don’t want to mess this thing up with him… or whatever it is - I mean I think that it’s a thing? Unless I totally made it up in my head…” Big Red rambled on from the bathroom.

“So there is a _him_? A living breathing boy somewhere out there?” 

“Dude!” His best friend replied, attempting to act offended as he made his way out of the bathroom, “And yeah yeah… there’s a guy.”

Ricky grinned triumphantly, “This is great, Red! You’re talking to a guy! You haven’t talked to a guy since… since…”

“Never?”

Ricky pressed his lips in a thin line, “Well there was that one cashier when we went bowl–”

“The straight cashier? That lasted a whole five minutes and then I tripped in front of him and got my fries all over the floor. A complete nightmare.”

“He thought it was cute! I was there, remember.”

Big Red rolled his eyes, “Dude, your gaydar is questionable for someone who likes guys too. Remember you tried setting me up with Garrett Linsburg and he just thought I was trying to hook him up with some pot?”

Ricky thought back to that time. He laughed, “Yeah, that was a bit of a bust. Garrett’s a douche anyway. Did you give him any though?”

“Well since I _thought_ it was a date yes, yes I did. For free.”

Ricky sighed, “Isn’t Garrett on this trip? Can’t we just get him to pay you back?”

Big Red snorted, “He wants nothing to do with me after he found out that I thought it was a date. He almost hit his head on the bleachers.”

“If only he actually hit his head on the bleachers…” Ricky hummed, sitting down on his bed. “So, how’d you and mystery boy start talking?”

“That’s a secret. I don’t want to mess it up, remember? I think it’s going good… I mean I hope it is. And I hope he likes me! He sends me these really funny gifs of dogs dancing—it’s kind of an inside joke… did you and Nini have inside jokes? I really don’t know if he’s being friendly or being _friendly,_ you know? It’s hard to tell over text!” Big Red babbled, playing with the hem of his flannel shirt. 

“Red, I’m sure that if he’s texting you as much as he is that he likes you.” Ricky laughed. “And I really can’t remember if Nini and I had any inside jokes… but I’m sure that it means something!”

Red frowned slightly, “You guys didn’t have a _single_ inside joke?”

“I don’t think it’s a big deal, dude.” Ricky rolled his eyes. For the life of him, he really couldn’t think of a single inside joke that they had. Nini wasn’t really too funny, although he would try to laugh at her jokes.

Big Red scrunched his nose, crossing his arms, “Fine. But if this dog gif is just a “we’re friends” gif then you won’t see me all summer.”

“Hm, you really like him, huh?” He smirked at his best friend.

His cheeks burned a bright crimson color and then smiled lightly, “I guess so.”

As if on cue, Big Red’s phone buzzed. He grabbed it almost instantly and let out a hearty laugh as he looked down at his phone. He looked up at Ricky, his smile growing wider and wider.

Ricky raised his brows, “Dog gif?”

The redhead nodded his head, “I gotta send one back!”

“I seriously need to figure out who this guy is. Maybe I’ll steal your phone when you aren’t looking. That sounds like a grand idea, Ricky.” He smiled and patted himself on his back.

“Well, I’ll tell Nini _all_ about you and Gina.” Big Red grinned deviously at his best friend.

Ricky’s lips parted, “You wouldn’t.”

“We’ll see…” He shrugged. “Hey, speaking of Gina, are you sitting with her on the flight?”

Ricky shrugged his shoulders, “Uh, I’m not sure. We haven’t talked about it. Why?”

“Oh just wondering. I just don’t know if you want to sit with me or her.”

His mouth twisted, thinking about whether or not he should ask Gina if they’re sitting together. Are they sitting together? Would it be weird for them not to sit together? Would people be suspicious? Does Gina want to sit with him? All of these questions ran through his mind, “I’ll have to ask her.”

“Alright, cool, just let me know.” Big Red replied, then started to zip up his suitcase. “What time do we have to be down in the lobby?”

Ricky grabbed his phone and checked the time, “We have fifteen minutes.”

The two boys continued to pack the rest of their stuff, checked the rest of their room for any loose items and then laid on their beds until it was time for them to go down to the lobby. 

They grabbed their bags and left their room and saw some of their classmates also leaving their rooms too. They squeezed in the elevator with their peers and then made it to the lobby.

They saw the rest of their classmates and the chaperones, who were all waiting for the rest of the group to arrive downstairs. Ricky immediately saw Nini standing next to Elias, EJ and Kourtney. Ricky frowned slightly, seeing Nini laughing with her friends and then looked away, starting to look for Gina.

Neither she or Ashlyn were nowhere to be found so both Big Red and Ricky stood near the front desk. 

Ricky turned to the redhead, “You ready to see some wax figures and a really old palace?”

“Dude I’m actually kind of excited to see the wax figures. Too bad the One Direction ones are gone.” Big Red sighed audibly.

“There’s One Direction wax figures?”

“There _was_. I’m sure it was a sad day in London when they were escorted out.”

Ricky laughed at his best friend, rolling his eyes. “You’re so weird, dude.”

Big Red went to say something but was interrupted by Ashlyn’s voice cutting their conversation short, “Hey, Red! Hey Ricky.”

Their eyes snapped towards the two girls walking towards them with their bags in hand. “Hey, Ashlyn! Hi Gina.” Big Red replied happily.

“Hey.” Ricky nodded his head, his eyes moving to Gina, who was already looking up at him.

“Hey, honey pot.” Gina smirked slightly as she set her backpack on the floor. 

Ricky couldn’t help but laugh lightly, not expecting the pet name to arise in front of their friends, “Good morning, honey butter biscuit.”

She shook her head at his horrible nickname, a small smile cracking on her lips. 

“Honey pot?” Ashlyn exclaimed, the name falling off her tongue with clear distaste.

“ _Honey butter biscuit?_ What kind of name is that?” Red’s eyes flickered between the fake-couple.

Ricky looked over at Gina for a moment and then to his best friend, “It’s a long story, dude.”

“Yeah. It’s kind of an inside joke.” Gina said to Big Red.

Ricky nodded his head slowly and then his eyes met his best friend’s. He was looking up at him quizzically, his mind clearly going back to the conversation they had just a half hour before. The curly haired boy shrugged, and mouthed “it’s nothing.” 

Big Red’s gaze lingered on the pair for a few moments longer, until the chaperones started calling attendance. 

After attendance was called, the group of teenagers all handed in their room keys and they were off to explore London a bit more until it was time to head to the airport. 

After everyone loaded their luggage onto the buses and got settled in, Ricky and Gina sat next to each other on the bus to Madame Tussaud’s and were making small talk as usual. The ride to the wax museum wasn’t long and they were there in no time.

“You excited to see some wax figures, Bowen?” Gina turned to him once they were off the bus and heading inside.

“It’ll be a hell of a lot more fun than the Natural History Museum of boring.” Ricky mustered up a grin and wrapped his arm around Gina.

“It wasn’t that bad. And besides, you were literally dying over the dinosaur exhibit, so it couldn’t have been that boring.” She replied, looking up at Ricky.

He rolled his eyes, “Yeah. I’d be more excited if I saw a wax figure of a dinosaur. My life would just be complete.”

Gina hummed in response as they approached their group once they were inside the museum. 

“Hey lovebirds.” Carlos greeted them happily, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Carlos.” Ricky and Gina both said in unison. 

Ricky glanced over at Elias and Nini, who were also entangled in themselves, and said, “Hey.”

“Hey, Ricky.” Elias replied, pressing his lips into a thin line. For a few seconds, though it was subtle, he could see that Elias had pulled Nini a bit closer into him as if he was trying to prove a point. 

Ricky looked down at Nini, who almost looked uncomfortable, and then back to Elias, tilting his head. _What was that?_

It was the first sign of Elias ever being threatened by Ricky. For some reason it made him involuntarily pull Gina in closer to him, his eyes staying on Elias for a moment too long.

Elias’ blue eyes stared back at him and he raised his brows slightly. Ricky was about to say something when he felt something pinch his side– _hard._

He winced, grabbing his side and then looked towards Gina who smiled up at him. Her eyes said “what the hell are you doing?” but then she laughed, turning to the rest of the group, “So, you guys ready to get started?”

“I’m ready!” Nini said quickly, tugging on Elias’ hand in the direction of the exhibits. 

Once the couple was ahead of them, Gina turned to him, and whispered, “What the hell was that, dumbass?”

“What was what?” 

She glared at him, “I don’t know what it was, but there was some kind of weird masculinity dominance test going on there and it was completely unnecessary!”

“He started it!” He whisper-yelled back.

“Well, don’t do it again. It definitely made Nini super uncomfortable.” 

“You didn’t have to pinch me that hard, by the way.” Ricky whined, rubbing his side. “I’m gonna get a bruise.”

“Good.” Gina replied happily as they followed Carlos, Nini and Elias into the musical artists exhibit. 

The exhibit room was full of different musical artists ranging from Britney Spears to Michael Jackson. Throughout the room, they saw a lot of their classmates were taking pictures with the wax figures, including Big Red and Ashlyn. 

The pair went over to their friends, who were taking a picture with the Beyoncé wax figure. “Hey!” Ricky said as they approached their friends.

“Oh hey!” Big Red smiled.

“Care for some company?” Gina smiled. 

“Please. EJ and Kourtney are already being super annoying. I seriously don’t know why they haven’t gotten together yet.” Ashlyn sighed, looking over at EJ and Kourtney who were taking a selfie with the wax figure of Ed Sheeran.

“I love EJ, but he can be so dense sometimes. She _clearly_ likes him…” Gina laughed, looking from EJ and Kourtney and then up to Ricky for a moment. 

He raised his eyebrows watching her look away from him quickly, seeing the crease in her forehead form as she focused back in on Ashlyn. He shook it off as Ashlyn continued talking.

“I agree. At this rate, I just hope that he fulfills his five step plan in time.” 

“He has a _five_ step plan?” Ricky widened his eyebrows, looking down at Gina.

She nodded her head, “Yeah. I think he’s only on step two right now. At least that’s what he said last night.”

“Man, maybe I should’ve come prepared with a five step plan to get Nini back.”

“Nah, you’d still be on step one if you did.” Big Red smiled at his best friend.

“Thanks Red, I appreciate it.” 

The four teenagers walked through the exhibit and stopped at each one of the musical figures. After they decided to visit the Star Wars wax figure exhibit next (which both Ricky and Red almost lost it when they found out about it). 

Upon entering the Star Wars display room, Ricky and Big Red ran to the Darth Vader wax figure first. “Dude, this is insane!” Ricky exclaimed, looking closely at the wax figure.

“It seriously looks like him. Get next to it! Wait – actually let’s get a selfie. I gotta send this to my dad. We both can say we’ve met Vader.” Big Red said excitedly, opening his phone and the two boys posed next to the wax figure.

“Imagine if it just came to life.” Gina said as she walked over with Ashlyn.

“That’d be dope.” Ricky said to her. “Oh shit! Red! Look it’s Leia and Jabba! It’s from Jabba’s Throne Room. Come on let’s go!” He patted his best friend on the back, sending a small smile towards Gina before he and his best friend ran to the wax figure.

The two girls followed them over to the super realistic wax figures. Ashlyn took a picture of both of them: Ricky was posing next to Jabba the Hut with a goofy smile, while Big Red stood next to Leia and pointed up at her.

“Maybe I _can_ die happily.” Big Red hummed, looking up at the wax figures warmly.

“You guys are such nerds. First dinosaurs and now Star Wars?” Gina shook her head at them.

“Oh God, Gina-rina, do I have to add Star Wars to our triple-feature movie night when we get home?” Ricky crossed his arms, raising his brows.

“If I say that I’ve seen them, can we scrap watching the Night at the Museums? That way I won’t have to watch any movie with you?” 

“Okay so you haven’t seen Star Wars.” He ignored her snide remarks. “Adding it to the list.”

He looked over to his best friend, who stared at him and Gina for a moment. Ricky ignored him, “Come on, Red, we’ve gotta find Chewy… he’s gotta be around here somewhere.”

After finding the Chewbacca, Han Solo, and stormtrooper wax figures, the two boys had found Ashlyn and Gina in front of the Yoda wax figure. 

“Personally I think they should add a Baby Yoda wax figure. It’d be even better than this.” Ashlyn commented as she stared at the small wax figure in front of them.

“No way!” Big Red defended. “First of all, Yoda is the OG… there’s no one better than Yoda. And second of all, his name is Grogu, Ashlyn.”

Ricky laughed at his best friend, shaking his head as he continued to go on about how Yoda is so much better than Grogu and why Grogu just isn’t worthy of getting its own wax figure. As he listened intently to Red's reasoning, his eyes wandered over to Gina, who was laughing at what the redhead was spewing on about.

The exhibit was poorly lit to fit the theme of Star Wars and the only light was coming from the wax figures. As he looked at her, he felt something unfamiliar in his stomach. He couldn’t figure out what it was, if it was the lighting, his lack of sleep or just the way she looked while she was laughing… she looked really pretty. 

“…not that Grogu doesn’t deserve his own wax figure, because he does but–”

“Alright, alright, Red. I think they got it.” Ricky said quickly as an attempt to shove that very strange thought and feeling out of his system. It felt weird. 

“Fine. But ask me again in five years and I’ll tell you what I think about Grogu getting his own wax figure.” 

“Shouldn’t he and Mando get a wax figure together?” Ricky replied, still trying to avoid that thought that keeps creeping back in.

“That’s a whole different story, dude.” Big Red said as they all started to walk away from the Yoda wax figure. They all continued to look at all of the other Star Wars wax figures until they were finished. 

Both Gina and Ashlyn thought that they were finished with Ricky and Big Red being nerds, until they were met with the Marvel wax figure exhibit. 

Though this time, Ricky didn’t seem to be as into it as his best friend. He just felt really strange about his new revelation about Gina. Yes, he knew that she was pretty. Of course he knew that; he’d be dumb not to see it. But he never ever got that feeling while looking at her and he never stopped to really look at her until now.

The teenage boy quite literally had to push that feeling down because he didn’t know if he wanted to feel it again. It almost felt wrong. 

Halfway through taking pictures next to Spider-Man, he saw Nini and Elias across the room. They were posing together next to Captain America as Kourtney snapped photos of them. They both were making silly faces and Ricky frowned at the sight.

And then he felt the familiar wave jealousy wash over him as he watched the two together. They looked like they were having fun and were laughing together, causing Ricky to miss being around Nini. Seeing them like this was pretty much enough for Ricky to forget about his thoughts of Gina. 

“You know,” Gina’s voice rang through his ears, “it’s probably not as fun as it looks.”

He looked down at her and then back at the laughing couple, “I guess.”

She nudged him, “Come on, Bowen, let’s make it look like we’re having an even better time.”

He looked down at her and suddenly he didn’t feel as strange around her. It wasn’t weird anymore; it was just the same Gina that it’s always been. Maybe he was just freaking out over nothing. He nodded his head, the corners of his lips turning up, gesturing towards the Iron Man figure, “After you, babe.”

She rolled her eyes and began to walk towards the wax figure of the well known superhero. Then she stopped, looking down at Ricky’s hand and intertwining her fingers in his. Ricky looked down at their hands for a moment and then shook it off, walking towards the wax figure with Gina. 

Once they were met with the strangely-realistic looking Iron Man, they decided to get a picture with it. Since there wasn't anyone really around them, Ricky took out his phone and they took a selfie with it. One smiling and one with a funny face. 

“That’s your idea of a funny face?” Gina looked over at Ricky, who had just set his phone down. 

“I thought my face was pretty funny!” Ricky frowned, looking down at the picture.

“You’re right. Your face is always funny.”

“You’re just jealous because your face isn’t as cute as mine.” He mused, a small smile playing on his lips.

“You’re right. You have the most beautiful face on Earth. They should turn you into a wax figure.” Gina replied, looking up and down at the Iron Man statue in front of them. 

“It’s true. Maybe I can send them one of my headshots.” 

Gina finally looked over at him, rolling her eyes, “Come on, let’s go take a picture with that huge green guy.”

Ricky’s jaw fell open and he looked over quickly to the Hulk wax figure, “You can’t be serious! How do you not know Hulk? Hulk-smash? Ring a bell?”

Gina tilted her head and blinked, “Nope. Really doesn’t ring a bell.”

“You’re kidding. You know who Iron Man is but you don’t know who the Hulk is? Bruce Banner? The Incredible Hulk? Portrayed by Mark Ruffalo? Porter, have you been living under a rock all your life and just haven’t been exposed to the amazing and beautiful wonders of modern day pop culture?”

She stared at him for a moment until she cracked a smile, “You’re too easy, Bowen. I know Hulk. I just wanted to see your reaction.”

Ricky frowned and glared back at her, “You’re evil. You know that?”

“It was all worth it. You should’ve seen your face.” Gina laughed. 

He shook his head, grabbing Gina’s hand again, “Let’s go meet a waxy Captain America. You sure you know who he is?”

“Peter Parker? Isn’t that his name?” Gina asked and smirked at him. Ricky glared back at her, attempting to come off as unamused. 

They made their way towards the last wax figure and met back up with Ashlyn and Big Red as they were taking pictures of the statue. “Hey friends.” Gina said as they approached them.

“Hey!” They both said in unison.

After a few minutes of small talk, the group took a picture with Captain America. By the time they were done, it was time to report back to the chaperones so that they could head to their two final stops in London before they left for the airport.

A half hour passed and everyone was back on the buses. As they left Madame Tussauds and headed towards Buckingham Palace, Ricky decided to check his phone. When he opened it, he saw that Gina had tagged him in a post.

He looked over at her, “You tagged me in a post?”

She glanced up from the window and nodded, “Yeah. I gotta do my part as your fake-girlfriend. It requires posting about you.”

“Oh. Yeah, right.” He replied and opened the post which was posted on Gina’s Instagram story. It was a picture of him posing with Han Solo, a huge smile plastered across his face, and she had captioned it: Nerd <3\. 

Ricky laughed lightly, a small smile spreading on his lips. He looked over at Gina who was smiling down at her phone. It looked like she was texting someone and curiosity spiked in his chest, wondering who she could be texting.

“Who are you texting?” He asked curiously. Maybe he shouldn’t have asked that. 

Gina looked up at him, her brows raised, “My mom.”

His lips formed into an ‘o’ shape and then went back to what he was doing. Though it was a short bus ride, it seemed to take forever. Ricky’s mind was wandering to everything Gina. He didn’t ever think of it before, but where was her mom if Gina was staying with the Caswells? Did she know the Caswells prior to moving to Salt Lake? 

And that’s when he realized that he really didn’t know much about her. He knew that she was a year younger, that she lived with the Caswells, and that she could be undeniably annoying but other than that… he really didn’t _know_ her. And for some unknown reason, he wanted to know all about her.

“You’re deep in thought.” Gina’s voice interrupted his thoughts.

He looked over at her and laughed, “Yeah. Just thinking.”

Her eyes lingered on him for a moment as if she were trying to take a look at what he was thinking about. Ricky, who was secretly hoping she couldn’t read his mind, was looking right back at her. Then the bus stopped and she moved her eyes away from him. 

He frowned slightly and then realized that they had arrived at their next stop. After everyone piled out of the bus, the chaperones told them to visit the palace, grab something to eat, then meet back in precisely an hour.

Ricky and Gina were greeted by Nini and Elias within a few minutes and then Carlos had arrived. 

Ricky could feel the animosity coming off Elias again, which felt completely uncomfortable, and he couldn’t figure out why. They’d been fine every day before this. The two of them really didn’t have any bad blood besides their mutual connection to Nini.

He averted his eyes from the blonde and looked towards Gina, “So want to visit the palace first and then get some food?”

“Sounds good to me.” Gina replied, looking over to the rest of their group members, “You guys good with that?”

“Actually…” Nini said, looking up at Elias, “we were gonna go get some food now and then see the palace. If that’s cool.”

Ricky looked at her quizzically but she evidently avoided his gaze. 

“But we have to stay together. As a group.” Carlos reminded them, his brows raised.

Elias shrugged, “They don’t have to know. We’ll be fine.”

“Uh, yeah, you two go do that.” Ricky said, his eyes meeting Elias’. The couple nodded and then went off in the other direction.

Carlos turned to Ricky and Gina, “That was weird. Elias is acting super strange.”

“I know.” Gina replied. “It’s kind of off-putting considering he’s usually super laidback.”

“A bit of a douche if you asked me.” Ricky hummed, watching Nini and Elias get smaller as they walked farther away.

She nudged him, “He’s usually not a douche. And it’s definitely about you. Maybe it’s a good thing?”

He had almost forgotten that Gina had a crush on the annoyingly-perfect blonde tree that was Nini’s boyfriend. He sighed, “I guess. I just wonder what happened.”

“Who cares!” Carlos chimed in, crossing his arms. “Let’s go, I want to see where the Royal family lives.”

And so they walked up to the gates of the palace and admired the beautiful architecture of the building. Along with their other classmates, they all decided to take pictures together in front of the building.

After 15 minutes of hanging out in front of the palace, the three teenagers decided to get something to eat with only 45 minutes remaining until they had to leave to visit Hyde Park.

As they walked through the streets of London, they found a restaurant that they all decided was to their liking. Once they sat down, Ricky couldn’t help but yawn. 

He slept for a bit longer last night than he did the night before, but even then Big Red’s CPAP machine was still waking him up a few times during the night.

His eyes met Gina, who was raising her brows, “You barely got any sleep again, huh?”

He sat back in his chair, “More sleep than the night before but I guess it wasn’t enough.”

“Maybe you can sleep on the flight?” Gina suggested.

He nodded his head, “Yeah, probably. Oh, by the way, are we sitting together on the flight?”

“I mean, do you want to?”

“Well, I just didn’t know if you wanted to sit with Ashlyn this time.”

“I could if you want to sit with Red.”

Ricky frowned slightly, “It really doesn’t matter to me.”

Gina bit down on her lip and paused, “It doesn’t matter to me either.”

“You two are unbelievable. Just sit with each other, it’s more convincing.” Carlos said, looking up from the menu.

“Are you always so grumpy?” Gina asked, turning to him.

“Only when I’m being held against my will to hang out with the two of you. At least you’re not actually a couple—that would be way worse.” 

After thirty minutes go by and the teenagers are finished with their food, they all make their way back to the buses and gather with the rest of their classmates as the chaperones begin to announce roll call. It doesn’t take long before everyone is loaded back on the bus and they are headed for their final destination in London.

It was a short five minute drive to Hyde Park and once they arrived, the teenagers all dispersed and went their separate ways. Instead of meeting with their group, Ricky and Gina had yet again met up with Ashlyn and Big Red to spend their final hour in London together.

Luckily, the park is large enough that not many of their classmates were in sight so Ricky and Gina didn’t have to act like a fake couple. 

They walked through as much of the park as they could in just the hour they had left. They took pictures with statues that really didn’t have any meaning to them, they took pictures of the park’s beautiful landscaping and some of the lake that was in the middle of the park.

With twenty minutes left until they had to get back to the rest of their classmates, the group of four decided to sit down on the grass close to The Rose Garden. Ricky laid down in the grass next to Big Red, who sighed happily, “So what do we rate London out of ten?”

“I’d say an 8. It didn’t rain once!” Ashlyn replied as she looked around at her surroundings.

“I’ll give it a 7.5.” Ricky said, turning his head to look at Red.

“A 7.5?” He heard Gina question.

He glanced over at her, “It would’ve been a solid 8 but we almost died yesterday on the London Eye so–”

“We didn’t almost die, Bowen. You’re unbelievable.” She laughed lightly, looking down at her hands in her lap. He watched as she started to play with the charms on her bracelet and then he swallowed, looking away from her and back up at the sky. 

“Well I’d give it a 9.” Big Red said to his friends.

“Why not a ten?” Ricky asked.

“Because I didn’t meet any of the members of One Direction.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at his best friend, “Oh, Red.”

Their conversation went on for the next ten minutes until they all had to get back to the buses. They grabbed their belongings and headed for the rest of their travel group. 

Once they arrived and the chaperones did their usual attendance call, everyone loaded onto the buses and were headed for the airport. 

The bus ride to the airport was about twenty minutes long and once they were there, getting everyone through airport security and customs took up about an hour of their day. 

For the half hour that they had free before they boarded their flight, Ricky and Gina roamed the airport and made their way through a few gift shops before they had to return to their gate. 

Finally, it was time for their flight to board. Gina had already texted Ashlyn about sitting with Ricky so it wasn’t a problem getting situated once they boarded their flight. Unfortunately, the pair of teenagers were not seated in a window seat rather they were sat in the middle section of the plane.

Ricky didn’t complain since it was only a two hour flight to Berlin. 

Before take off, Gina turned to him, “Too bad there’s not anything you can hit your head on.”

He rolled his eyes, “I might actually leave this trip with my whole body bruised. First I hit my head, you punched me yesterday, and then pinched me earlier.”

“All of which have brought me immense joy.”

Their banter continued for the next few minutes until their plane took off. After sitting in comfortable silence for a while, both of the teenagers put their headphones in and started to do their own thing as they left the city of London and headed for Germany.

━━━━━━

Somewhere along the way during the flight, Ricky had drifted into sleep and this time he woke up to his head resting on Gina’s shoulder. He froze upon the realization of how close in proximity he was to her and the fact that she was clearly awake—and hadn’t shoved him off of her.

He lifted his head from her shoulder and she glanced over at him. His lips parted, “I-I’m sorry… I, uh, um, didn’t realize that I was on your shoulder and–” he stopped when he saw a small smirk on her lips. 

“It’s fine. You weren’t like that for long at all.”

He swallowed and nodded his head, “Okay. Sorry again.”

“You know, you should really try getting some sleep at night.” Gina commented as she turned her phone off, setting it down in her lap. 

“Me? Getting sleep at night? I could never.” Ricky said tiredly as he rubbed his eyes. “What time is it? Are we almost there?”

“Yeah, I think there’s like fifteen minutes left until we land.” 

“Alright, cool.”

By the time their flight landed it was about 6:45pm, since Berlin was an hour ahead of London. After everyone got off the plane and retrieved their belongings, the chaperones did their usual routines and then everyone headed for the exit of the airport.

Before everyone they arrived at the hotel, the group stopped to get something for dinner before they settled into their hotel for the rest of the night. 

They ended up dining at a local restaurant close to their hotel that could seat all 40 students and teachers. Ricky sat with Big Red, Gina, and Ashlyn as usual and they mostly discussed their plans for tomorrow. 

For most of the dinner, Big Red spent most of the time talking about how he already loved Germany and wants to live there. Plus, after the majority of their classmates had found out that the legal drinking age is only 16, they all suddenly fell in love with Germany too.

After dinner it was then 8:30 and time to head to their hotel for the rest of the night. Once they all arrived at the hotel and the chaperones checked in, each pair of roommates had gotten their room keys. 

“East High students—settle down, settle down,” Mr. Mazzara announced before everyone went up to their rooms, “Alright, now just because you all have gotten ahold of the newfound information that you all are able to drink alcohol here, I want you to take that information delicately and do with that what you will… be responsible.”

“And,” Miss Jenn spoke quickly, “No matter what, do _not_ leave the hotel. That’s all from us! Have a good night!”

As the group of chaperones started to leave the lobby and same with the students, Ricky turned to Gina and Ashlyn, “Well, I guess we’ll see you two tomorrow?”

“Yeah…” Gina trailed, looking up at Ricky with a small smile, “see you tomorrow.”

He smiled back at her, then turned to Ashlyn, who was already looking at him, “Night, Ricky. Night, Red.”

“Night, Ashlyn.” The two boys said in unison.

“Bye, Gina!” Big Red said as the two girls started to walk towards the elevators. Gina bid her goodbye to him and then they were off.

The curly haired boy turned to Red, “What’s our room number?”

“Uh,” the boy started as he took out the room key envelope, “208.”

“208.” Ricky repeated, nodding his head slowly. He grabbed his suitcase and the two boys headed towards the elevator.

Big Red pressed the button to the elevator and they waited. The elevator was almost to the ground level when Ricky realized that he left his bag on the couch in the lobby, “Oh, shit dude, I left my backpack in the lobby.”

The elevator doors opened with a ding!

“Do you want me to wait for you?” Big Red asked, his hand flying in front of the doors so it wouldn’t close.

Ricky shook his head, “Nah, you go ahead I’ll meet you up there.”

The redhead nodded, grabbed his bag and entered the elevator as Ricky headed for the lobby. Once he was in the lobby, he spotted his backpack on the red couch near the front door. 

He went over and grabbed it, then started heading back to the elevators. As he approached the elevators, he was met with a familiar face. 

“Nini,” he breathed out, instantly becoming nervous. They were the only ones waiting for the elevator. 

She turned to him, her eyes wide, “Ricky… hey.”

He swallowed and suddenly his heart started to race. Seeing her with Gina around really wasn’t all that bad, but they hadn’t been alone together since their breakup. The air felt undeniably uncomfortable and full of tension already.

“Uh,” he started, not really knowing what to say, and then lifted his backpack up, “I left my backpack in the lobby.”

She looked at his backpack and then to him, nodding, “Oh. Nice.”

Uneasy silence took over between the pair of exes as they waited for the elevator. Ricky had dreamed of a moment like this, being alone with Nini, where he wanted nothing more than to ask her why she broke up with him and moved on the next day. But he couldn’t bring himself to ask her.

Nini glanced over at him, “Um, so, where’s Gina?”

“She went to her room with Ashlyn.”

Her lips parted, “Oh. Right.”

The elevator doors finally opened and they stepped inside at the same moment. After the doors closed and they both pressed their floors, Ricky turned to her, “So… is everything alright with Elias? He was acting a bit strange earlier.”

She rubbed her arm uncomfortably, and swallowed, “Um. He’s just having an off day. It’s really nothing.”

He knew her enough to tell that wasn’t even close to the truth, but decided not to pry even more. Everything felt weird and tense between them—he didn’t want to make it any worse.

After a few more moments passed, the elevator finally reached the second floor. Ricky cleared his throat and turned to her, “Well, night… Nini.”

The doors opened and Ricky stepped out. He turned back to her, his heart desperately wanting for her to say _something_. 

“Bye.” She replied and then the doors closed.

He exhaled audibly and stood there for a few moments, frowning. He shook his head and then headed for his room. Once he made it to his room and opened the door, he greeted Big Red.

Big Red was already laying on his bed with his phone glued to his face, “Dude, I ate so much at dinner. German food is amazing.”

Ricky forced out a small laugh and set his suitcase and backpack down next to his bed, “It was pretty good.”

The redhead sat up, “You good?”

Ricky stared at the wall for a moment, feeling like the world was weighing on him and then nodded, “Yeah. Just tired.”

“It has been a long day.” His best friend agreed whilst letting out a loud yawn.

Ricky unzipped his suitcase and grabbed a pair of sweatpants, a t-shirt, and his toiletries, turning to his best friend, “I’m gonna take a shower.”

Red nodded his head and gave Ricky a thumbs up. With that, he headed into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror for at least three minutes. He felt drained.

Sighing, he turned on the shower, undressed and got in the shower. His shower must have lasted a half hour as he just stood under the water with his thoughts running a mile a minute through his head. They were all about Nini.

After he mustered up the energy to finally turn off the shower, he dried off, got dressed and brushed his teeth. 

Once he got out of the bathroom, he saw his best friend already passed out asleep on his bed. Ricky made his way over to his phone, which was set on the nightstand, and checked the time. It was only 10:14.

He sighed, grabbing the device off of the table and then fell back into his bed. He opened his phone and decided to go on Instagram to pass some time.

He checked up on his feed. Half of it was pictures of his favorite celebrities and skaters, and the other half was pictures of his classmates on the trip. Big Red had even posted a picture of him and Ashlyn on the London Eye. 

After a few minutes of scrolling, he ended up stumbling upon Nini’s newest post. It was only posted a half hour ago. There were a few pictures of her and Elias hugging and some were of Nini kissing his cheek with the caption: No one else I would want to spend my trip to Europe with ❤️ @elias_scott love you!

Ricky felt a pang of both jealousy and hurt wash over him all at once. She only posted it a half hour ago, which meant it was after their interaction in the elevator. He couldn’t help but feel like that caption was directed at him somehow. He vividly remembered all the times that Nini had told him how ecstatic she was to go with him on this trip and how it was going to be the best time of their lives. 

It felt like the last three years of their relationship that they spent building was torn down just by a single Instagram post. 

So he laid there for the next ten minutes, his mind once again clouded by the thought of his ex-girlfriend. He wondered where it went wrong again and again, wondering if she missed him too, and if it actually bothered her that he was with Gina. 

And if she wasn’t… what was this all for?

He suddenly had the urge to get out of his hotel room. It now felt cramped and uncomfortable, causing Ricky to spiral even further into his ‘I-want-my-ex-back’ freak out. 

But where would he go? Down to the lobby? On a walk alone in a foreign city alone?

And then an idea crossed his mind, but then he pushed it away. He set his phone down and stared up at the ceiling. 

A small sigh escaped past his lips as he kept coming back to his idea. But Gina was probably already in bed… right?

After a few moments of toying with the idea of asking her to hang out, he groaned and grabbed his phone. He quickly went to his text messages and clicked on her contact. Without thinking further, he started typing:

**_You up?_**

He waited.

**_Yes. I’m not a grandma!_**

Ricky laughed lightly at her response.

**_Want to go for a walk? Need to clear my head_ **

Ricky swallowed nervously as he pressed the send button. He couldn’t explain why he wanted to go with Gina on a walk. Big Red was already in his dream world and she was pretty much the only other person who he had.

He nervously tapped his phone, waiting for Gina to respond. He felt himself growing more anxious—what if she didn’t want to hang out with him because she doesn’t _have_ to? She could easily say no or that she’s tired. What if she thinks he’s annoying or laughs at him for wanting to go on a walk with her?

He sighed again. She still hadn’t responded and all of these worst case scenarios continued to run through his head. He didn’t know why he was nervous but he was.

And he became even more nervous when he saw the bubble that indicated she was typing. Her typing seemed to take forever which only caused him more stress and anxiety—but that all went away once he got her response.

**_Meet downstairs in 5?_**

Ricky practically jumped out of bed, grabbing his beat up blue vans and his room key. He glanced over at Big Red, who was still passed out asleep. After a minute of waiting to leave, he headed down to the lobby. 

He reached the lobby and his eyes immediately rested on her. She was leaning against the couch, wearing a blue zip-up hoodie and a pair of leggings, which made Ricky smile slightly.

Their eyes met and Gina smiled slightly, “I didn’t know you were such a rule breaker, Bowen. Sneaking out after curfew? Tsk tsk.” 

“Didn’t know you like to hang out with rule breakers.” He responded, an amused smirk playing on his lips.

The two of them exited the building, and were met with a warm breeze. They decided on turning right down the street.

“So was Red not enough company for you?” Gina inquired, raising her brows up at the boy when they were a ways away from their hotel.

“Red fell asleep. He must’ve been exhausted from all the food he ate today… he’s insane.”

Gina laughed lightly in response. A comfortable silence fell over the pair as they walked down the sidewalk. The two of them had decided to walk towards the Brandenburg Gate, which was only a short walk from their hotel. 

The streets were almost empty for it being a Wednesday night, which was strange since Salt Lake was usually pretty busy compared to this. It was nice and calming for a walk.

“So… what was the reason you wanted to get out?” Gina asked softly.

He cleared his throat, not really wanting to tell Gina about his run-in with his ex, “Uh, Nini… actually. I saw her Instagram post and it just really hit home, I guess.”

“Ah.” Gina said. “I saw that.”

“I don’t know… it’s just that we always had talked about being on this trip together and it’s just all turned around.”

After a few moments of silence, Gina looked up, “If you don’t mind me asking… Why did the two of you break up? I mean the whole school thought the two of you were meant to be.”

Ricky sighed heavily, “Honestly? I thought we were too… it all happened so fast. One day we were completely fine and the next Nini was crying on my bed telling me that she didn’t want to do long distance for college.”

“That sucks. You don’t deserve that, you know?”

He shrugged, “I just wish she’d give me some sort of explanation. It couldn’t really have been about the long distance if she got into another relationship so quick… It’s really tiring going over every crack and hole of our relationship and not getting any closure.” 

“Have you ever asked her?”

He shook his head, “No.”

“Maybe you should.”

“I’ve tried… trust me. I just can never find the right words.” 

Gina looked up at him as they walked, “They’ll come at the right time.”

He glanced back at her and suddenly, he almost felt more at ease hearing those words coming from Gina. He gave her a small smile and she looked away. 

Silence fell over them again and they listened to the sounds of the new and unfamiliar city that they were in. Ricky’s thoughts wandered to the girl next to him and just how much he didn’t know about her. 

“So, I–uh realized earlier that I really don’t know anything about you.” Ricky said, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “You know, besides how annoying you are.”

Gina looked up at him and scrunched her nose, “Good one. Um, what do you want to know?”

He looked back down at her, “I don’t know… your life, your family, where you’re going to college… the basics.”

Gina paused, looking down at the concrete sidewalk they walked on and then back up at Ricky, “I’ll have you know I’m a _very_ interesting person, Bowen.” She laughed. “You know, I live with both my parents in a huge mansion with everything I could possibly want, I go to East High where life is just _spectacular_ and now I’m here with you in Europe. Pretending to be your girlfriend.”

Ricky rolled his eyes, clearly not giving into whatever front she was putting up, “Come on, Porter. Tell me about you. The real you.”

He watched her closely and noticed how her playful smirk had turned into an unsure smile. He nudged her, “I’ll even tell you anything you want to know about my fabulous life.”

She let out a breathy laugh, looking up at him, “Okay.” She said simply. 

He nodded his head in triumph and turned his head away from her to the city in front of them. 

“It’s just me and my mom.” Gina said after a minute of silence. “My dads not… in the picture and I don’t have any siblings.”

Ricky nodded his head, “I’m an only child too. It gets kind of lonely sometimes.”

“Tell me about it.” She agreed as she played with the hem of her hoodie. “That’s why I love living with Ashlyn. I got so close with both her and EJ… they’re kind of like my found family. I know it sounds dumb but–”

Ricky shook his head, “It’s not dumb.”

Gina looked up at him with a small smile ghosting her lips. 

“So… why don't you live with your mom?” Ricky asked curiously.

She swallowed, “Well, she currently lives in New York. She works for FEMA, so we have to move basically whenever a disaster strikes. Before I got to East High, we lived in five different places in seven years…”

“Wow… Is it hard? Constantly moving and not staying in one place?”

“Yeah. But throughout the years I’ve learned never to get too close to anything or anyone because it could get taken away from me at any given moment.” Gina responded. “You get used to it after a while.”

Ricky nodded slowly as he processed the information, “So if your moms in New York, how come you’re still in Salt Lake?”

“My mom moved to New York just before Christmas last year and I was supposed to go with her. Before I was leaving, Ashlyn had offered for me to stay in her guest room for the remaining year… my mom and I had eventually decided that it would be good for me to stay in one place, make some real friends and finish high school.”

“It was hard being away from my mom at first. I was still fifteen and staying with a family that I barely knew. It was scary and a bit tough, but that’s how I got close with EJ and Ashlyn… I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

Ricky could tell how much Gina loved and appreciated both her mom and the Caswells just by the way she talked about them. She even got a glint in her eyes. 

“But this past school year, I realized it _really_ was hard to be away from my mom. She’s been the only real constant in my life and truthfully, when I decided to live with the Caswells, I wasn’t ready to be on my own. And then, I ended up finding that I was eligible enough to graduate a year early, with all of my extra credits from my other schools and with my APs so…”

“You’re going to live with your mom in New York.”

“That’s the plan.”

“You think you’ll ever come back to Salt Lake?” Ricky asked almost immediately, feeling a bit eager and curious to know the answer. 

Gina shrugged, “I mean, maybe eventually. I don’t really have any other reason to come back other than to see the Caswells and they already have arranged when they would fly out to New York to see me basically whenever they can.”

Ricky felt himself frown slightly at the thought that he might never see Gina again. Even though they’ve only known each other four days in the strangest of circumstances, Ricky thought of Gina as a friend.

“Right… that makes sense.”

Silence fell over them as they continued to walk down the streets of Berlin. 

Ricky cleared his throat, “So, uh, when do you leave? Are you staying the summer or leaving after graduation?”

“Why, Bowen, do you want to spend more time with me?” Gina cracked a smile, looking up at him with raised eyebrows.

Ricky feigned disgust, “Ew, why would I want to spend more time with you?” Gina laughed and he shook his head. “Nah, I’m just curious.”

“I’m staying a few weeks after graduation. Ash and EJ practically begged me to stay a little longer so they could spend more time with me.”

“Ah,” Ricky nodded his head.

Gina bit down on her lip and looked up at him, “So, what about you, Bowen… what’s your life like? I’ve already heard about your life in the romance department, but what about your family, what's your life after graduation—I wanna hear all about it.”

Ricky let out a deep breath and a small laugh escaped his lips, “I’ll save you all the gory details, but my parents just got divorced a few months ago. It was tough, I’m not going to lie… it’s like, when I was younger I used to think my parents were the epitome of true love. They met when they were kids, actually, and my dad swore they were meant to be,” he laughed at the memory, “and he did anything he possibly could to win my mom over through the years. And then, they finally got together in high school.”

He looked down at Gina for a moment, who was intently listening to his story, making him feel more at ease, so he continued, “It was like your classic high school sweetheart story—get married in college, have a kid young and then eventually they realized it wasn’t…”

“Meant to be?” Gina looked up and tilted her head.

He swallowed, “Yeah.” 

Gina looked away and Ricky sighed, “I don’t know… I think I was avoiding the fact that they were barely talking to each other the last few years and that my mom was constantly in Chicago on business - which evidently wasn’t about business at all. I guess I’m okay with it now… it just sucked—it still sucks.”

“So does your mom live in Chicago now?” Gina asked gently.

“Yeah. She has a new boyfriend.” 

“I’m sorry, Ricky.” 

Ricky looked down at Gina, a bit surprised with her use of his name. They rarely called each other by their real names. After a few moments, he shrugged, “It’s okay. I’m okay.”

The two of them let silence fall between them for the next few minutes, as they took in Berlin at night. It was peaceful, especially having Gina as company, Ricky felt like his head was already cleared and Nini was the least thing on his mind.

“Um…” Gina began, “what about college? Where are you going?”

“Just going to U of U. I really don’t know what I want to do with my life to be completely honest. Just gonna go with the flow and see where it takes me.”

“I get that. It’s completely fine that you have no idea what you’re going to do, you know. None of us do.”

Ricky raised his eyebrows, a knowing smile playing on his lip, “and what are you going for?”

She rolled her eyes, mirroring the same knowing smile back, “Dance.”

“Ah, _yes_ , she does dance.” Ricky chuckled. “So I’ve heard.”

“Yes she does.” Gina replied and looked up at Ricky. “It’s my thing.”

After a few moments, Ricky hummed, “Want to know a secret?”

“A secret? You collect your toenails in a peanut butter jar?” The curly haired girl mused.

“What? No!” He sputtered, laughing. “No… I was going to say that I have a thing. Not many people know of it, though.”

“Ricky Bowen has a thing besides skating and getting high on weekdays?” Gina put her hand on her mouth, pretending to be surprised. Ricky sent her a playful unamused glare in response. She continued, “Go on… what is it?”

“Uh, I don’t know, it’s kinda stupid–” he began to feel his cheeks beat up.

“Just tell me!” Gina nudged his side.

He bit down on his lip, “Uh, I, um sing a little.”

“Really?” She asked, slightly surprised.

“Yeah.” He felt himself become a bit nervous having Gina know this information about him. 

“Well now you have to sing for me, Bowen. It’s only fair.” 

Ricky’s lips parted, “No way! Not here.” 

Gina looked around them, “There’s no one around! It’s just me… come on, you can’t just drop that on me and expect me to not want you to sing!”

Now he was nervous. He really didn’t want to sing in front of Gina, not now at least. He shook his head, “Not happening, Porter. Give me a few days and then we’ll talk about it.”

She scoffed, “A few days? Now that’s just cruel.”

“It is what it is.”

She frowned, “I just want to know if you’re any good so I can make fun of you if you aren’t.”

“And if I am? Any good?” 

“I doubt it.” She poked fun at him. “But we’ll see what happens.” 

Ricky shook his head lightly, a small smile creeping on his face. He liked the way that their conversation flowed and how comfortable that Gina made him feel. It was nice.

“So,” she began, “if you like to sing, how come you never tried out for the musicals?”

“Are you kidding? Musicals are literally the worst thing ever to come into existence - no offense. It’s incredibly unrealistic how they just break into song every ten minutes… it just doesn’t make any sense! Plus, that’s Nini’s thing… I wouldn’t want to get in the way of that.”

“You’re lucky that high school is almost over, Bowen. If I knew you a year ago knowing what I know, I probably would’ve made you audition. You’d probably end up liking it a lot more than you think, you know.” Gina replied. “And so what if it’s Nini’s thing? It could be your thing too—it’s okay to like the same things. If Nini really loves you, she’d love that you wanted to try something new and support you every step of the way.”

He looked over at her and half-smiled, “Maybe in another life.”

“In another life you would’ve for sure played Troy in last year's production.” Gina nudged him.

He chuckled, “Yeah sure.”

“You would’ve been a lot better than Elias was, I’ll tell you that.” 

“Oh yeah? Are you saying Elias was a bad Troy?”

She laughed, “He wasn’t _bad_. But he just wasn’t the right fit is all.”

Ricky hummed in response and was about to ask her about her crush on him. Before he could say anything else, both of their eyes landed on the Brandenburg Gate which was now in sight. 

As they neared closer to the large structure, they couldn’t help but gape at its beauty. It stands tall with six columns holding up the top and is illuminated with bright lights. 

“Wow,” Gina whispered. “It’s so beautiful.”

Ricky tore his eyes away from the gate and glanced at Gina. He couldn’t help but notice how beautiful she looked under the artificial light of the gate in front of them. Her lips curved up in an amazed smile and her eyes lit up in wonder. 

“Yeah,” he said softly as he looked at her. And then he felt the same feeling that he felt just earlier and it brought him right back to reality. He averted his eyes to the gaze, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with where his thoughts were going once again. 

“Can you get a picture of me?” Gina turned to him.

He nodded quickly and cleared his throat, “Yeah, sure.”

She walked a few feet in front of Ricky, posing with her arms up in the air and a big grin on her face. He smiled to himself as he snapped a few pictures of her.

Gina waved him over, “Come on, let’s get one together.”

He walked up to her and held his phone out. He attempted to get as much of the gate in the picture as he could, but his arm only extended so far. They took a few smiling and a few silly ones just as they did earlier with the wax figures.

They stood in front of the gate for quite awhile, just admiring the architecture and basking in each other’s company. It was nice to actually be alone with Gina and not to have to pretend all the time. It was nice to be just _them_.

After a while, Gina looked down at her phone and sighed, “We probably should get back.”

Ricky rocked on his heels, a small frown forming on his lips, “Yeah… probably.”

Their walk back to their hotel was filled with their usual playful banter and more get-to-know-you questions. Ricky learned a lot about Gina in those twenty minutes of their walk back. Her favorite color was orange, not like a hard orange but the sunset orange, her all time favorite TV show had to be Full House, and she loves to bake and knit in her spare time. 

As they approached the entrance to their hotel, Ricky saw two of their chaperones conversing in the hotel lobby. “Uh,” he suddenly halted, his hand flying in front of Gina causing her to stop walking, “we have a problem.”

“What?”

“Miss Jenn and Mazzara are in the lobby. Why are they in the lobby? It’s almost 11:30!”

“Are you really freaking out over that? It’s not like they can really do anything about it…” Gina reasoned, looking through the glass doors of the hotel entrance at the two teachers standing at the front desk.

“Well, yeah, that’s true but how would we try explaining to them why we left the building in a completely foreign city in the middle of the night which could potentially be very dangerous.”

“We could just tell them that you were feeling sick so we had to get some fresh air.”

“Wait, why do I have to be the one who’s feeling sick?”

Gina glanced over to him, a small glare in her eyes, “It’s more believable.”

Ricky sighed, “Yeah. I guess you’re right. But–wait, we’re not supposed to be with each other after curfew so how are we going to explain that–”

“I think you should stop overthinking this. You get high on school property almost every day and you’re scared of Miss Jenn and Mazzara scolding you?” 

“Well, it’s actually pretty simple, I just know how to not get caught at school.”

A few moments passed and then Gina put her hand out in front of Ricky. He looked down at it and then back up at her, his brows raising, “What?”

“Let’s just not get caught.” 

He gazed down at her hand without any more thought, he grabbed it. And then she started walking towards the entrance and dragged Ricky along with her.

Before she opened the door, she turned back to him, “You need to be quiet.”

He rolled his eyes, “ _you_ need to be quiet.”

She ignored him and then opened the door. Their teachers' backs were to them so they quickly ran towards the couch and ducked behind it, before anyone could see them.

Their hands were still tightly intertwined as they crouched behind the couch. Ricky eyed their next move; the elevators were just a few feet from them around the corner. 

“I think we should just go for it.” He whispered to Gina, who was staring at their chaperones.

“I think you need to be quiet.” Gina whispered back. “Okay, I think we can make it if we go quick.”

She looked back at him for validation and he gave her a quick “now or never” shrug. So they stood, quietly, and watched their teachers carefully. Their backs were still turned to them, so the pair of teenagers quickly ran towards the elevators.

Ricky smashed the elevator button eagerly with the fear of being caught. Their teachers were just around the corner and could turn it any second.

Gina’s grip on his hand got tighter as they heard Miss Jenn and Mazzara’s voice grow louder. Finally and just in time, the elevator door opened and the teenagers ran inside and pressed their floor numbers.

“Excuse me, can you hold the elevator?” They heard Mr. Mazzara’s voice call after them. 

They stayed silent as the doors began to close.

“Hey—” Miss Jenn began but the elevator door closed and started heading upstairs.

Ricky and Gina let out exhaled breathlessly. Gina put her hand over her mouth, “Oh my God, that was so close, do you think they saw us?”

“I mean probably, we weren’t exactly 007 out there.” Ricky laughed, trying to catch his breath.

He watched as she laughed along with him but then noticed that their hands were still clasped together. She dropped his hand, laughing lightly.

Ricky stuffed his hands into his pocket, trying to act as if the loss of contact didn’t bother him. The elevator door opened to Ricky’s floor and he turned to Gina, “I’ll walk you to your room.”

The doors closed.

“You know you don’t have to walk me to my room every night, Bowen.” 

“I know.” He shrugged. “I want to though.”

She smiled up at him and before she could say anything further, the elevator doors opened to reveal Gina’s floor. 

The two teenagers exited the elevator and walked side by side down the hallway. Gina stopped once they reached her door and Ricky followed her actions.

“Thanks for coming with me tonight… it was nice.” Ricky said, rocking on his feet. 

“It was.” Gina said softly after a few moments, nodding her head. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yeah. See you tomorrow, Porter.”


	6. Gina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey there! sorry this took kind of a while but i really hope you all like it as much as i do <3
> 
> ps. it's not proofread so pls ignore any mistakes/things that don't make sense!

Gina laid in bed a little longer than she usually did that morning, with the events of the night prior on her mind while she stared up at the ceiling of their hotel room. Before last night, she really didn’t know all that much about Ricky and she thought that it was always going to be like that. Sure they’re friends, but they’re friends because of a proposition. 

But then last night happened, and Gina never realized how much she and Ricky had in common, and just how much they actually _got_ each other. It was a foreign feeling; getting close to another person in such a short amount of time. The only people in her life that she was truly herself with beside her mom were Ashlyn and EJ… but now Ricky could be added to that list. 

But Ricky was different from Ashlyn and EJ. She connected with Ricky like she had never connected with anyone before. It took her months to really open herself to her best friends fully and completely. With Ricky… it was easy to talk to him about her life and what makes her world go round. She didn’t know why she found it so easy to open up to him that quickly, especially after only four days of knowing him. 

Being with him felt comfortable, talking to him was easy, and they truly had fun together. There wasn’t an awkward phase or a small talk phase of their relationship; they were just thrown into this crazy mess of a friendship and it was almost like they’ve known each other their whole lives. It was easy.

He was growing on her, maybe more than she would like to admit, and it didn’t help her plans for after this trip. She was supposed to leave for New York and it was supposed to be easy to keep in touch with just the Caswells. But now, Ricky was someone she had to potentially leave behind too. 

As she was deep in thought, staring up at the ceiling, she was suddenly met with a pillow-to-the-face which ripped her away from her thoughts. She groaned, removing the pillow from her face, “What was that for?”

Ashlyn laughed, “We need to get ready.”

Gina rolled over and looked at the alarm clock: 8:47am. She sighed and began to climb out of bed.

“What were you daydreaming about?” The redhead inquired as she dried her wet hair from the shower. 

“How I have to spend another entire day kissing up to Ricky.”

Ashlyn rolled her eyes, “You weren’t complaining when he asked to go on a walk last night.”

Gina shrugged, “Yeah but I didn’t have to act like his girlfriend the entire day. It gets tiring, you know.”

The redhead hummed in response and Gina took that as her cue to make her way towards the bathroom so that her friend couldn’t ask her any further questions about the topic of a certain curly haired boy. 

As she got ready, she was able to push those thoughts about Ricky out of her mind completely and replaced them with the excitement for exploring the city of Berlin today. It was a free day in the city and all of the groups could really do what they wanted as long as they stayed together. 

It took the two girls about a half an hour to get themselves fully ready for the day. Before they left the room, Gina looked at herself in the mirror. She wore a violet purple halter top, a pair of light wash jeans and her sneakers, while she let her curly hair fall naturally in her face. Ashlyn had mentioned that the weather was supposed to be in the high 70s, so she had to dress for the occasion. 

She hadn’t seen a nice day like this in Salt Lake City all spring. 

Once they were ready, they headed downstairs for breakfast. Their elevator ride down to the lobby was short and then they were immediately greeted by Ricky and Big Red, who had been waiting for them to get downstairs. 

“¡Hola muchachas!” Big Red grinned, lifting himself up from the wall that he was leaning against. 

Ricky turned to his best friend, “Looks like those six years of Spanish really paid off,” he turned back to the girls, “Hi.”

“Hey.” They both said in unison. Gina’s eyes rested on Ricky for a few moments, taking in his simple outfit consisting of a pair of jeans, a slightly oversized lilac t-shirt with his regular vans. She tried not to stare for too long and looked away after a minute. 

Together they all started walking towards the dining room of the hotel, where all of their classmates should be getting breakfast at that moment. Ashlyn and Big Red had already started walking ahead, leaving Ricky and Gina to walk together. 

Ricky turned to Gina, eyeing her for a moment, “Hey, pretty girl.” 

_Pretty girl?_ Gina raised her eyebrows, not sure of how exactly to react to that statement (observation? compliment?). Is that just a new pet name? Nonetheless, it was enough for the blood to rush to her cheeks. 

Almost instantly, as if he was as confused as Gina was about what he had just said, Ricky’s eyebrows furrowed together in shock. His lips parted and he went to say something, potentially to cover and make up some type of excuse for the new nickname, but Gina beat him to it.

“New nickname?” She teased, nudging him slightly, a smirk evident in her voice. 

He let out a breathy laugh, “Uh, yeah, you could say that.”

Before they knew it they were in the dining room and the group of teenagers all headed towards the breakfast buffet. Ricky handed Gina a plate before grabbing his, and then sent her a small smile before he went to grab some food. 

She smiled at the small gesture and followed his actions by getting some food on her plate. She piled her plate with fruit, made a bagel, and grabbed a yogurt before she headed to the table that Big Red, Ashlyn and Ricky had just claimed. Gina sat down next to Ashlyn and across from Ricky.

“Wait–you two are matching.” Big Red pointed between Ricky and Gina, who were both wearing a similar shade of purple. 

“Oh my God.” Ashlyn laughed, covering her mouth.

Ricky looked down at his shirt and then looked at Gina’s, “Oh, shit, I can go change if you want me to. I didn’t even realize–”

Gina couldn’t help but laugh at his flusteredness, a smirk forming on her lips, “Calm down, Bowen, it’s really not a big deal.”

He looked at her, his cheeks slightly tinted pink by now, and cleared his throat, “Uh, yeah, right… okay.”

“So how was your walk last night?” Ashlyn asked the curly-haired boy, who had just begun eating a slice of his bacon. He looked up and then looked at Gina, who shrugged, not really knowing why her best friend had just asked that.

“Ah, yes, the walk that I didn’t even get an invitation to!” Big Red sighed, glaring at Ricky. 

“Dude, we’ve been over this five times this morning - you were passed out when I went! I didn’t want your cranky ass as company if I woke you up.”

“It would’ve been nice to at least get an invite.” Red mumbled in response.

“Yeah, Ricky, why didn’t you invite me?” Ashlyn pouted. 

“Gina could’ve invited you! I wouldn’t have cared.” Ricky groaned, sitting back in his seat.

“You sure you just didn’t want to be alone with her?” Ashlyn hummed, a small hint of amusement evident in her voice but it was enough for Gina to stop chewing her bagel momentarily. She looked over at her best friend, who had a small smile on her lips. 

Ricky laughed quickly, “Please, I already spend too much time with her. She was my last resort, obviously.”

She knew he was kidding, but Gina couldn’t help the lick of disappointment that it brought up. But still, she went along with it, and rolled her eyes at him, “Aw, I’m honored to be your last resort, Bowen.”

Ricky eyed her for a moment, but before he could respond, someone else had sat down at their table beside him. It was Carlos, who had a beaming smile on his face, “Hi, friends and my favorite couple… who are matching!”

“Carlos.” Ricky muttered, a small glare on his face. 

“Hey, Carlos!” Big Red said.

“Not to be rude,” Gina started, “but why are you sitting with us?”

“Well hello to you too, Gina!” He replied, sarcasm dripping in his voice. “Anyway, I’m not here to stay. But, I just wanted to get the word out that Seb and I are throwing a little party in our room later after curfew. You’re all invited.”

“Sounds boring.” Ricky said simply. Gina smiled a little at his response.

“If you have to know, a certain ex-girlfriend of yours is going to be there. If I were you, I wouldn’t miss another opportunity to make her jealous… the clock is ticking, Bowen.”

Gina frowned slightly at the reminder. It was true, they were only on their fourth day but the days were going fast and before they know it, it might be the end of the trip.

“Thanks for the reminder, man.” He replied, looking down at his plate for a moment. He then looked up at Gina, raising his brows, as if he were asking: _You in?_

She shrugged, “Do I even have a choice?”

“Perfect.” Carlos clapped his hands together. “What about you two, do you want to come?”

Big Red glanced over to Ashlyn, “I don’t know, Ash, do you want to skip the party and go on a walk past curfew?”

A groan escaped past the curly haired boy's lips, “Not this.”

“Oh, Red, that sounds like a great idea.”

Carlos, who was trying to figure out what exactly the teens were talking about, tilted his head, “Are you trying to say that Ricky and Gina went on a walk past curfew last night?”

“Maybe.” Red shrugged, a small smirk playing on his lips.

“It was nothing. I really don’t understand why it’s such a big deal.” Gina said, looking up at Carlos nonchalantly. He wasn’t going to let this down.

“Huh.” He nodded slowly, a small smile creeping on his lips, before turning his attention towards Red and Ashlyn, “so, for real, you guys coming?”

“Yeah, I’m game.” Big Red nodded.

“Me too.” Ashlyn agreed.

“Cool! See you tonight and see you two very soon.” Carlos said before getting up from his seat and heading towards his table. 

“Now he’s just getting under my skin.” Ricky said once Carlos was out of sight. 

“He’s not all that bad.” said Ashlyn.

Gina turned to her, brows raised, “No, Ash, he’s seriously out to get us. He’s definitely up to something.”

“I can’t believe he found out in the first place.” Red said, looking up from his phone.

“It’s all Bowen’s fault.” She said.

“Come on,” he moaned, “that’s not even fair! He would’ve never found out if you didn’t plant your lips on my cheek in front of my ex-girlfriend.”

“Your _what_ on who’s cheek?” Red chimed in.

“We were over this, it was a way to get her jealous! And if you don’t recall, it _worked_.”

“When did this happen?” Ashlyn asked, looking over at Big Red who was just as confused as her.

“But Carlos found out and it’s because of you, Porter.”

Gina rolled her eyes, “Hello, he only found out because _you_ freaked out over it. It’s really nothing to lose sleep over.”

“Clearly this is a situation where the both of you are to blame here.” Ashlyn cut into the seemingly never ending debate. Gina looked at her and sighed, nodding her head slightly. 

“When did the two of you start sounding like a married couple?” Big Red attempted not to laugh at the two of them. 

Ricky shoved him lightly in response and shook his head before returning to his plate. Gina laughed faintly in response, and too, went back to eating her breakfast. 

The rest of breakfast seemed to go by fast and once their entire travel group was finished, they all gathered in the lobby before they headed out to explore the city. As they stood in the lobby, the chaperones told them all the game plan for their day. 

Mr. Mazzara, who couldn’t look like more of a tourist with his backpack and camera draped over his neck, started the announcements, “Before we begin, we wanted to address something that happened last night while Ms. Jenn and I were down in the lobby… doing normal hotel guest things… Well, we saw two of you sneaking back into the hotel.” 

The forty some students all erupted into whispers. Gina pressed her lips into a thin line, trying to suppress the laugh that was bubbling in her chest. _We really weren’t 007 out there._

“Alright, settle down, we don’t want you all getting any ideas.” The tech teacher continued, “Now we don’t know who it was, we couldn’t catch you in time, but this was after your 10pm curfew, so as a reminder you _all_ have to stay in the hotel and your rooms after curfew.”

Ricky nudged Gina’s arm. She looked up at him and he had a small smirk on his lips, as if he were saying “we definitely almost got caught.” She shook her head in response and went back to paying attention to their teachers.

“Okay. Now that we’ve settled that, we wanted to remind you all of today’s plans.” Miss Jenn announced. “We’ll all be visiting the Berlin Wall memorial together. There, we’ll be seeing murals all throughout the wall. But then after that, you all are free to explore the city! With your groups, of course.”

“And, just because you all are of-age and able to drink here, we discourage your use of alcohol today. You’re on a school trip and representing us.”

“Representing a school from Utah?” Ashlyn whispered incredulously. 

“Lastly,” one of the other chaperones said, “We’ll be meeting back together for dinner around 7:00. Stay with your groups at all times.”

And with that, they all headed outside and loaded onto the buses. Ricky gladly took the window seat as he was very excited to see more of the German capital, though Gina really didn’t mind. After yet another round of roll call, the buses pulled away from the hotel and they headed for their first destination.

After a few minutes of driving as Gina looked down at her phone, the chaperones told everyone to look out their window at the Brandenburg Gate. She looked up from her phone and glanced out the window.

It looked a lot prettier at night. 

“It did.” Ricky agreed, a small smile on his lips at the memory.

Gina glanced over at him, slightly confused. She didn’t realize she was thinking out loud. She looked back out the window, until the gate was slowly becoming smaller and smaller as they got farther from the monument.

Soon their two minutes of driving had become ten minutes of driving and they neared their first stop of the day: the Berlin Wall memorial. Once parked, everyone got off of the buses and gathered with their groups.

As the fake couple made their way over to their group, Ricky snaked his hand into Gina’s and intertwined their fingers. Gina didn’t think twice about it and they neared their other three group members.

“Hey.” Gina greeted.

“Howdy.” Elias responded with a nod. Gina’s eyes moved over to Carlos, who sent her a little wave. 

“Uh, hi Nini.” Gina heard Ricky say and her head snapped in his direction. What?

“Um, hey.” The brunette forced a smile, shifting uncomfortably in her spot. Gina glanced between the two skeptically.

Did she miss something? It wouldn’t really be a big deal if they greeted each other regularly but they’d barely said two words to each other on this trip. 

And to make matters worse, Elias pulled Nini into him, again, just like yesterday as if he were trying to prove something to Ricky. Gina was starting to get irritated with it. He already had Nini—why was he acting so territorial? 

Carlos cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable with whatever was going on, “So, who’s ready to start?”

“Gladly.” Nini replied breathily, grabbing Elias’ hand and dragging him in the direction of their moving classmates.

Gina looked up at Ricky and sent him a _‘what the hell?’_ look. He shook his head in response, clearly not wanting to elaborate. 

Both the pair and Carlos walked together about a few feet from Nini and Elias. After a minute of walking, Carlos turned to them, “So, about your walk last night…”

“Why are you so obsessed with us?” Gina groaned, sending a glare in his direction. 

A small smirk played on his lips, “Come on, I was put in a group with you two and them. I need some kind of entertainment!”

“We’re literally in a foreign country. There’s plenty of other ways to be entertained.” Ricky said.

“Oh, please, I know. But I find _this_ ,” he pointed between Ricky and Gina, “whole thing so… interesting.”

“That’s a little weird, Carlos, don’t you think? Do you dream about us?” Gina asked, tilting her head.

He pretended to think about it, “Can’t say I do, Gina. I just really love how I see right through the two of you. And besides, if no one else is going to stir the pot, I will.”

“You’re insufferable.” Ricky grumbled, rubbing his hand across his forehead in distress.

Carlos ignored the snide remark and looked around, “Well, since you guys have so many nice things to say about me, I’m going to go find Seb.” With that, he turned in the other direction and looked for his close friend. 

Ricky exhaled loudly, “You know how much I would love just to punch him square in the jaw?”

Gina chuckled, “I’d pay to see that.”

The two teenagers continued to walk together down the strip. Seeing the wall in person was almost surreal, especially after it being part of most of their history class lessons throughout the years. They were on the East Side Gallery of the wall, which displayed over 100 murals from different artists from across the world. 

As they walked, Gina turned to him, “So you’re not a secret history guru?”

Ricky laughed, “I like history but I wouldn’t consider myself a guru.”

“Well, that’s a first. Of all the places we’ve gone, you’ve had almost ten heart attacks because of how excited you were.”

“Hey,” he pretended to be offended, “I actually had eleven heart attacks.”

Gina giggled. They approached the first mural; it was amazing. It was a painting of two men sharing a kiss, called ‘Fraternal Kiss’, which is of the famous embrace between Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker. There were many other tourists surrounding them, some were getting pictures, and others were enjoying the famous mural.

After five minutes spent at the mural, the two made their way to the following murals. Gina took pictures of most of them to send to her mom, and Ricky even offered to take pictures of her next to them. She let him, of course, and Gina excitedly posed in front of a few murals.

Once they had viewed a few more of the large paintings, they were met with a painted teal mural that was of a car “breaking” through the wall. It was called ‘The Trabant’ and it had to be Gina’s favorite yet. She gazed up at the mural with a look of amazement.  
After a moment of looking up at it, she turned her head to Ricky, who had already been looking down at her. He smiled lightly, “You like this one?”

“Yeah! It’s so cool- it’s like a symbol of the East Germans who attempted to escape over the wall, you know?” She turned her head back to the mural.

“Porter, _please_ ,” he clapped his hands together as if he were praying, “tell me you’re a history guru.”

She scoffed, hitting him in the arm, “Hardly. It’s just… Well, yes, I like history but I took APUSH last year and we had this whole gigantic unit on The Cold War. It was just so interesting to me. I don’t know.”

“Huh.” Ricky hummed, looking down at her still, “Cute.”

Gina furrowed her eyebrows and glanced over to him, unsure of how to take that compliment, “You know what else is cute?”

He raised his brows, a smirk playing on his lips, “Hm?”

“Freaking out over a dinosaur skeleton.”

“I see what you were trying to do there, but babe, I’m not ashamed of being a dinosaur guru.”

“I’m feeling a little nice today and am going to ignore that you just called me babe and yourself a dinosaur guru in the same sentence.” She returned her eyes to the mural before shoving her phone in his chest, “Get a picture of me in front of this.”

“What do you say?”

“God, Bowen, I’m not 7.”

“I’m not taking a single picture until you say it.”

She crossed her arms, plastering a grin on her face, “Ricky Bowen, would you pretty please take a photo of me in front of this amazing mural with a cherry on top, please?”

The corners of his lips turned upwards, “That’s better. Now go on, get in front of it.”

Gina’s fake smile fell off her face and she mumbled as she walked right up to the wall, “I hate you.” 

“What was that I heard? You _love_ me?” Ricky brought his hand up to cover his ear as if he were trying to hear her better. 

“You wish.” She said before smiling brightly for the picture. 

The two teenagers stood at the mural for a bit longer and their playful banter kept up for a while longer. Another forty five minutes had passed and they went through almost half of the murals until they ended up at the mural of Thierry Noir’s cartoon heads. 

The bright colors were fun and the cartoon-like heads weren’t too complex. Many people gathered arounds the mural and Gina even noticed that people were writing on it. Graffiti was one of the staples for all of these murals, though it wasn’t allowed, tourists took it upon themselves to write on the wall.

Gina nudged Ricky, who was looking up at the cartoon heads. He looked down at her and she motioned to everyone who was writing on the walls, “What do you think they’re writing?”

“Maybe they’re just writing a message or their names.” Ricky replied with a small shrug. He stared at the group of people who were writing on the mural and pondered something for a moment. Then, he looked down at Gina, “Hey.”

“Uh, hi?”

“What do you say we do something that’s probably illegal?”

Gina raised her brows, “Bowen, I would rather not get arrested.”

“We’re not going to get arrested. And, besides, weren’t you the one telling me to live a little last night?”

“That didn’t involve getting arrested.” She pointed out.

He groaned lightly and then without another word, he took her hand and dragged her towards the mural. Once they reached the wall, he grinned down at her, “Let’s write something.”

Gina laughed, “With what? I don’t know about you but I don’t carry sharpies around in my pocket.”

He frowned for a moment and then it was almost like a lightbulb had flashed above his head. He left Gina standing there for a moment and then moments later came back with a sharpie in his hand, “Got it.”

“How’d you get that so fast?” Gina asked in disbelief.

“I have my ways.” He smirked. “Nah, I asked to borrow their sharpie.” He pointed over to the couple admiring the mural.

Gina looked at the wall beside her. There were things written on it like positive quotes, signatures, and even profanities, “Okay… what should we write.”

Ricky pressed his lips into a thin line as he thought about it, “Uh, our names?”

“Our names?”

“I mean… only if you want to.”

Gina stared at him for a moment. His cheeks were already tinted pink and she couldn’t help but smile, “Give me that sharpie.”

She could see Ricky’s lips curve upwards in the corner of her eye as she started to write her name on the wall. Once she had written her first name, she handed the marker to Ricky. He wrote his first name above Gina’s and then drew a heart between the two.

“A heart?”

He turned his head, “We are dating, aren’t we?”

All Gina did was shake her head in response. She took out her phone and snapped a picture of their names together on the wall: **Ricky ♡ Gina.**

The next hour after that went by fairly quickly. Ricky and Gina knew how to have fun with each other and were able to be completely themselves when they’re together. It was a nice feeling for Gina. She didn’t have that with many people.

Then it was time to leave the Berlin Wall memorial with their school group. They all met back together around noon and then they were all free to roam the city as much as they wanted to. It was nice to have that much leeway, especially on a school trip. 

So once Ricky and Gina met with the rest of their group, they all collectively decided to get some shopping done and hopefully find some cool German souvenirs of some sort. 

Though they received knowing glances from Carlos, the pair walked hand in hand together down the streets of Berlin (much to Nini’s dismay). Gina had attempted to go hard with her flirting and touching when Nini was around, because hey, like Carlos said earlier, they’re halfway through this trip and it’s now or never.

The group started out going into almost every shop they saw. From souvenir shops to clothing stores—they went in all of them. 

When they were in one of the clothing stores, Gina had given Ricky a pair of sunglasses that she thought he wouldn’t look really good in, but much to her surprise she was very wrong. He did look good in them. She even convinced him to buy the sunglasses because of how well they suited him.

The day went on and Gina had noticed Ricky sending Nini subtle glances, as he always did, but it got her thinking back to their interaction from earlier. She couldn’t help but think maybe they talked. 

And she didn’t know why it bothered her so much because that’s what she’s here for. Helping Ricky get Nini back. That’s the plan.

And much to her dismay, Elias was still acting off too. The way he looks at Ricky, the way he’s getting protective over Nini… it wasn’t right. Gina wanted to get lost in everything that Elias is, but his attitude towards Ricky the last two days had been so off putting. It was almost disappointing.

Somewhere along the way, they had ran into Ashlyn and Big Red’s group. They all shopped together for a while and Red was basically bouncing off the walls at how excited he was for Seb and Carlos’ party that night because Seb kept talking it up.

Seb even had bought some booze for the occasion, since, of course, they were legal. 

Ashlyn and Gina hung out for a little while together as Big Red and Ricky went to shop somewhere else. Once they came back, the two boys were overly excited because they had found German gummy bears in one of the stores they had shopped in.

Their groups had stuck together until around 4:00. Carlos had decided to sneak away with Seb’s group, as he usually did, and left Gina and Ricky with Nini and Elias. 

Without much conversation involved, Nini and Elias decided to go off on their own. So then, it was just Gina and Ricky alone for a few hours in Berlin. And what did they do? 

They decided to try a whole bunch of different foods. Ricky had said, “Hey, you’re only in Germany once.”

They found a restaurant fairly close to where their group was meeting back up, hoping that their waiter spoke at least some sort of English, and to their surprise they did. 

Once they had ordered an array of different German foods, Gina looked up at the curly haired boy, “What was that whole thing with Nini about earlier? Anything I should know about?”

Ricky sighed audibly, “We kind of ran into each other last night in the lobby before we went on the walk. It was super awkward and nothing really happened but… I just… don’t know what I was expecting from her.”

She frowned slightly, wondering why Ricky didn’t tell her about this earlier. Not that he needed to tell her. She nodded anyway, “Oh. Right, that makes sense.”

“It just sucks that things aren’t the way they used to be with her.”

“They will be soon.” Gina tried to reassure him.

He shrugged, “Maybe not. At the rate this is going I’m never going to get back with her.”

“You need to stop worrying.” Gina said, sitting back in her seat, “I know I’ve said this but I see the way she looks at us when we’re being all couple-y. She _hates_ it.”

“You think?”

“Oh definitely. And based on the way that Elias is acting too… somethings up.”

“Yeah, what the hell is that all about? The guy is a total tool.” Ricky scoffed, before looking up at Gina, “Uh, no offense…”

Gina sighed, picking at the napkin in front of her, then shrugged, “It’s true. Trust me the way he’s acting is a total turn off.”

Ricky looked more than pleased to hear that, “Huh. Good to know.”

A short while later, all six plates of their food arrived, and they were in for a surprise. The whole menu had been in German, and google translate wasn’t exactly helpful with it so they went into it blindly. 

In front of them on the table sat six very different looking foods. One looked like a dish of meatballs doused in some type of creamy white sauce, another was just a plate of sausages, there was one with a piece of fried meat with a lemon placed neatly on top, a plate of white asparagus, a dish that looked like spaghetti, and lastly there was a plate with mashed potatoes, fried onions and some type of black _pudding?_

“Well…” Ricky started, “this is all… _something_.”

Gina pressed her lips into a line, taking in all of the food in front of them, “It looks… good.”

He laughed, “Uh, so, which one is the schnitzel? Heard it’s pretty good.”

“I really hope it’s not that black pudding concoction.”

“Hope not… are these meatballs?”

“Looks like it.” Gina responded, not sure of where to start. She took the plate of white asparagus and placed it in front of Ricky, “Start with this.”

He looked up at her like she had three heads, “I’m not eating that.”

“It’s asparagus. It’s not going to kill you!”

“I’m afraid it would if I put that in my mouth.”

“Bowen, don’t tell me that you hate vegetables.”

“I like _some_ vegetables! Just not… green… vegetables.” 

Gina couldn’t help but laugh audibly, “Well, you’re in luck, those are _white_.”

“I’m not eating it!” He took the plate and placed it in front of Gina. 

She stared at him for a moment before rolling her eyes, “You’re literally a 7 year old in an 18 year olds body.” She stated as he poked at the black pudding with a look of disgust on his face.

He continued to examine all of the food carefully. Gina watched him with a small smile on her face. He was a picky eater, which wasn’t something that Gina would have expected from him.

“Do you like _anything_ on this table?” She asked as she took a bite of the asparagus that was in front of her.

“Well,” he scrunched his nose, “I like sausages.”

Gina stifled a laugh, “Really? Good to know.”

“Is your mind always in the gutter? Or is it only when I’m around?” He looked up at her with a playful smile then winked at her.

She groaned, “That’s disgusting. Eat your sausages.”

“Gladly.” He hummed and started eating.

A short while later, as the two teenagers were halfway through their meals, Ricky sat back in his seat and looked up at Gina, “So, Red’s been keeping someone from me.”

“Keeping someone from you? Like he’s talking to someone?”

He nodded, “Yeah. He’s been on his phone most nights nonstop texting some guy, and like, I guess it’s fine that he won’t tell me who it is but I would like to know.”

“Do you have any idea who it could be?”

He shrugged, “Not really. It can’t be anyone on this trip, he’d be bugging out, and he’s never really had a huge crush on someone.”

She nodded slowly, “It must be pretty serious if he’s hiding that from you.”

“I just wish he would tell me about it. I don’t know… he’s always helping me with relationship shit and I want to help him too.”

“He’ll tell you eventually. When you really like someone, you don’t want to mess it up.” Gina said softly. She swallowed, “You know, like you and Nini.”

He looked back at her for a moment too long and then nodded, “Yeah… like me and Nini.”

Gina bit down on the inside of her cheek and returned her eyes to the table. They had tried most of everything, well at least Gina had tried most of everything while Ricky stuck to the sausage and mashed potatoes. 

“Hold up—why’s the spaghetti melting?” Ricky asked suddenly.

“ _Melting?_ ”

“Yes, melting! Look.” He pointed to the spaghetti looking dish that had certainly melted.

“I thought we ordered spaghetti?” Gina said, furrowing her brows.

“Clearly it’s not spaghetti.”

“Then why does it look like spaghetti?” 

“Jesus, Porter, how am I supposed to know that?”

She glared at him, “Okay… well, what is it?”

“I don’t know. Try it.”

“Why do I have to try it?” 

“Because… what if it’s disgusting?”

“Oh great, thanks, Bowen.” She sighed, and looked down at the spaghetti dish. What on earth could it be? She took her clean fork, dipped it in the food and tasted it.

Why did it taste like ice cream?

“Well? What is it?” Ricky inquired, sitting up curiously.

“I think it’s ice cream.”

“Ice cream?”

“Yeah. Vanilla ice cream.” She scooped an even bigger scoop on her fork. “And… strawberry topping?”

Ricky took his spoon and tried some for himself. As he tasted the food, his eyes widened, “Holy shit. That’s good.”

Gina nodded in agreement, “I just can't wrap my head around why it looks like spaghetti.”

He shrugged, “Germany.”

The two ate the plate of ice cream together in silence for a few minutes. 

After a few moments, Gina turned to him, “I really wouldn’t pin you as a picky eater, you know.” she mused.

“And I wouldn’t pin you as someone who would willingly eat asparagus that’s… _white_.”

“Asparagus is really good, Bowen. You’re missing out. I’ll tell you what, when we have our movie night, we’re going to eat dinner and have asparagus with it. And you’re going to eat it.”

Ricky stopped chewing, raising his brow, “Did you actually just agree that we _are_ having movie night?”

She rolled her eyes, “I might’ve.”

His lips turned up into a grin of triumph, “You like my company, Gina Porter.”

She tilted her head, squinting her eyes, “Hardly. You’re incredibly annoying.”

“But you want to spend a whole night having a movie marathon with me. I can’t be _that_ annoying.”

Gina rolled her eyes and smiled slightly. The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, continuing to pick at their spaghetti-themed ice cream. 

Ricky seemed to really like the cold dessert and Gina was surprised that Ricky even liked vanilla ice cream. From what she saw today, he was incredibly picky.

“Okay, so,” she started, “you’re a skater who’s weirdly obsessed with dinosaurs, loves Star Wars, singing and getting high… you’re deathly afraid of heights and are the world’s pickiest eater? You’re a lot more than meets the eye, Bowen.” 

Ricky looked up from the ice cream, his brows raised, “I guess you could just say I’m not like the other guys.” He stared back at her for a moment, his face completely straight, until he cracked a smile.

“I was about to call off our fake relationship if you were serious about the I’m not like the other guys speech.” Gina shook her head and took a bite of her ice cream.

“I saw the opportunity and ran with it.”

They spent about a half hour longer at dinner, having fun and just talking. Once they were finished and paid for all of their food, it was time to meet their classmates back at the bus. 

The walk back to the group was short and they met back with Ashlyn and Red who were excited how they watched the sunset at the top of Berlin’s TV Tower. They both excitedly showed the two teenagers pictures of the amazing late spring sunset.

All of their fellow classmates had gathered together, the chaperones took attendance and then they were off to get dinner at a restaurant close to their hotel. 

Ricky and Gina sat idly, not eating, at dinner with their friends but still engaged in conversation. They talked about all the foods they ate, what they bought that day and Ashlyn couldn’t stop talking about the cute German girl she had run into.

During dinner, there was a buzz of excitement around some of their peers because of the party in Seb and Carlos’ room later on. 

Once everyone had finished dinner, it was 9:00 and time to head back to their hotel for the rest of the night. At the hotel, Ricky and Gina had bid each other goodbyes and then they all went their separate ways to their rooms.

━━━━━━

After an hour of hanging out in their separate rooms and waiting for the chaperones to do their nightly check in at each room, everyone decided to head to Carlos’ room for the gettogether. The girls had changed out of their clothes that they were wearing and put on some fresh sweats. Ricky and Red would meet at Gina and Ashlyn’s room so that they could all walk up together to avoid any suspicion. 

The two girls waited for them for a few minutes until they heard a knock on their door. Ashlyn answered and they were met by Ricky and Red. Gina grabbed her phone and then they all headed up to the party.

As they arrived at the room, Ashlyn and Red decided to go in first and that Ricky and Gina would go in after a minute. 

“You ready for this?” Ricky had asked, looking over at Gina who stood beside him. He had replaced his clothes from earlier with a pair of sweatpants and another t-shirt. He looked good.

From the hallway, the pair of teenagers could hear muffled conversations of the group of teenagers that were inside of the room. Gina looked over at him and nodded her head, “Yeah.”

Gina watched as Ricky gestured down to his hand with his eyes. After she followed his gaze, she saw that he had his hand held out for her to take and without any hesitation, she took it. With that, he brought his hand up to the door and knocked.

After a few moments, the door opened to reveal their classmate Seb. He immediately met them with a smile, “There’s my favorite couple!”

Ricky and Gina laughed together in unison. 

It was a group of mostly theatre kids in their grade. Almost immediately her eyes rested on Elias and Nini, who were sitting on one of the queen sized beds with their hands laced together. She moved her eyes to where EJ and Kourtney were standing by the window, and she dragged Ricky with her as she made a beeline for them. 

“Gina!” Kourtney greeted happily, pulling her into a hug. Gina laughed and mumbled a sort of response into the girl’s shoulder. They pulled away and Kourtney’s eyes rested on him, “Ricky.”

She sounded more than displeased with his presence. He nodded his head towards her curtly, “Kourtney.” 

Gina frowned slightly, but squeezed his hand, then turned to EJ, “Hi there.”

“Gi, I feel like I haven’t seen you in a hot second! How’s everything?”

“Things are good. How’s everything with _you?_ ” She inquired, mostly hinting towards everything with Kourtney. 

He laughed, picking up on her subtle hinting tone, “Things are pretty good.”

“I’m glad.” She smiled up at him warmly. “So how are the two of you liking Germany?”

“It’s so beautiful!” Kourtney gushed. “We went to Museum Island earlier, which was super convenient because it’s Nation Museum Day. Anyway the museums were so cool and the food here is insanely good too.”

Gina looked over at Ricky, who laughed, “We tried an ugly amount of food today. I don’t think I ever want to eat again.”

“Yeah… I don’t know why we did that to ourselves.” Gina chuckled and looked over to EJ, who had a small smile on his lips. 

Before anyone could say anything, Ricky and Gina both felt a pair of arms wrap around them, “Thanks for coming, besties.”

“Hi, Carlos.” Ricky feigned happiness and sent him the brightest smile. Gina smiled but didn’t respond to him… he’d been acting strange all day.

“Hey, Los.” EJ said, a warmth in his voice as he said Carlos’ nickname. Gina had almost forgotten that EJ had previously dated the spawn-of-Satan otherwise known as Carlos Rodriguez. 

“Hi.” He responded softly. 

Ricky and Gina exchanged glances. That wasn’t the Carlos they know. 

The dark haired boy cleared his throat, “Anyone want a drink?”

EJ, Kourtney, and Ricky all agreed to have a drink while Gina politely declined. Once Carlos scooted away, Kourtney looked between the two, “So, when exactly did this start?”

They looked at each other and Ricky laughed, “A few weeks ago actually. We were talking for a while and then made it official kind of just before the trip.”

Kourtney nodded her head slowly, “Right.”

Gina looked over at EJ, who sure as hell did not believe that. He would’ve known. But nonetheless, she plastered a smile on her face and leaned into the boy beside her, “Yeah, I mean, it kind of happened so fast. But I’m happy.”

“Well, I’m happy for the two of you.” Kourt smiled. “You two really suit each other.”

“Thanks, Kourt, I really appreciate it.” Gina smiled and looked up at EJ, who still stared at her skeptically.

He forced a laugh, “Yeah… you two are… something.”

Kourtney nudged him, “Hey! Be nice.”

“Nah,” he chuckled, “you two are cute together.”

Ricky nodded, “Thanks man.”

Before anyone could say anything else, Carlos interrupted them with a few drinks and handed them to everyone who wanted one. 

About a half hour had passed, and everyone in the room was mingling amongst themselves. Ricky and Gina had stuck together and had completely avoided the side of the room where Nini and Elias stood, though Gina would notice both Nini and Ricky stealing glances in each other’s direction.

“Alright everyone!” Carlos announced after a while. “What do you say if we play a game? Maybe some truth or dare?”

The room erupted in agreement. Gina personally didn’t care for truth or dare, nor had she ever played it, but she went along with it anyway. 

Everyone sat in a circle. Ricky and Gina sat next to each other on the ground while Nini and Elias sat on top of one of the beds. There were 13 teenagers there in total, so they all squeezed in where they could.

“Okay,” Seb began, “who wants to start?”

“I will.” Jack, one of their classmates, said. “Uhhh, Steph! Truth or dare.”

“I’ll start easy. Truth.”

“Who, in this room, would you want to switch places with in this room for a day?”

She thought about it for a moment, “Honestly… Gina. You’re just so talented, literally no one is doing it like you.”

Gina instantly smiled, “Thanks, Steph. You’re so sweet.” Ricky had wrapped his arm around her, pulled her into him and squeezed her shoulders. Her eyes went to Nini, who looked completely uncomfortable.

Steph nodded her head in return and then turned to Ashlyn, “Ashlyn! Truth or dare?”

“I’ll go dare. Why not.” The redhead shrugged.

“Okay… I dare you to… Dance with no music for one minute.”

And so Ashlyn did exactly that. It really wasn’t good at all, and made Gina burst out into hysterical laughter. It was definitely a sight to see. After she finished her horribly silent dance, the red headed girl turned to Gina, “Gi, truth or dare?”

She thought about it for a moment, “Dare.”

Ashlyn pondered, “How about… you post one of your old selfies on your Instagram story. I’m talking one of your bad ones.”

Gina groaned and pulled out her phone.

“That’s impossible!” Ricky chimed in. “Gina doesn’t have any bad photos.”

“Oh, yes I do.” She sighed in embarrassment as she scrolled through her camera roll a few years back. Finally she had found a picture of a 13 year old Gina standing in the mirror, wearing a bright neon green dress, makeup caked on her face doing a duck face. 

She showed Ricky, who was leaning over her shoulder. He laughed but then turned to her, “It’s cute.”

She looked up at him, raising her eyebrows, not sure if he really meant that or if he was joking. She turned away from him and then posted it on her story, “Okay. Done.”

Most of the group had gotten out their phones to look at the picture, mostly laughs coming from their mouths. After everyone was done teasing her about her selfie, she turned to Seb, “Ah, Seb, truth or dare?”

“Truth!” He said happily, leaning back on the edge of the bed.

“What’s your secret talent?” 

“Ah,” he hummed, “I can make my ears wiggle.”

And after both Carlos and Rico had begged him to do it for them, he did. It was weird.

“Kourtney! Truth or dare?” Seb looked up at Kourtney, who sat on one of the beds beside EJ.

“Hmmm, truth.” She responded.

“Let’s hear about your first kiss!”

Gina smiled as she looked over at EJ, who was more than eager to hear this. Kourtney had looked at him for a split second before covering her face, “It’s embarrassing!”

“Come on, Kourt!” Nini said, “I love this story. Tell them!”

She sighed, “Fine. So it was with Daniel Jameson in 8th grade after we had gone on our first date when we saw Frozen in theaters. When his mom dropped us off, he walked me to the door, and then we hugged. It was so uncomfortable and then he just laid one on me! But it was half on my cheek, half on my lips…”

“Oh, Daniel…” EJ laughed, shaking his head, “what ever happened to that guy?”

“The world will never know.” She shrugged, a small laugh escaping her lips. “Okay, uh… Nini, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.”

“What’s the best thing about dating Elias? We all would like to know.”

Gina felt Ricky tense ever-so slightly beside her, so she leaned closer into him and eventually rested her head on his shoulder. She couldn’t see his reaction, but she hoped that he didn’t mind. 

He rested his hand on her lower back as a type of reassurance. Gina hadn’t been this close to him since the time she kissed his cheek, and she was close enough to smell the faint scent of fabric softener that lingered on his clothes. If she could guess what he normally smelled at home like it would be exactly this, fresh but subtly mixed with weed.

She liked sitting like this. It was… nice.

“Gosh, he’s probably the best boyfriend I’ve ever had.” Nini began.

Gina immediately felt herself frown at Nini’s words. She really needs to stop talking.

“He’s the sweetest, most gentle and kind guy I’ve ever met. Plus, he’s super good at telling jokes. I’m always laughing with him.” She grinned at him with a bright smile, as if she were trying to convince everyone around them that she meant it.

What a bunch of bull. It felt like she was trying to rub salt in Ricky’s wound. Gina didn’t even want to know how he was feeling about it. She’d feel too bad.

“Thanks, babe.” Elias hugged her from the side.

She then turned to the group, “Let’s see… Rico. Truth or dare?”

“Dare!” 

“Do the worm.” 

_What a boring dare._ Gina thought.

So their classmate did the worm almost effortlessly in the middle of the circle. Gina felt Ricky’s laugh vibrating underneath her, and she liked the sound of it. 

Then, Rico had dared one of their other classmates to prank call the front desk. They did, and the hotel employees were beyond confused at the teenager who was asking them some very weird questions in English.

Gina had to admit that she was actually having fun. She never actually had been to a party, beside the parties that Ashlyn had thrown a few times before, but it was nice. It felt good to feel like she had friends.

After a few minutes, Gina had lifted her head from Ricky’s shoulder and sat up next to him. The two shared a small glance as one of their peers dared Carlos to run down to the lobby and ask if they have any tampons.

So the boy went straight down to the lobby all the while everyone chatted amongst themselves until he returned, breathlessly and embarrassed. He lifted the tampon up in triumph, “Bag secured!”

A few of their classmates cheered and Seb laughed, “I didn’t think they’d understand you.”

“Please,” he scoffed, “It took a lot of uncomfortable explaining. They barely understood English.”

“Ah, Ricky!” Carlos hummed as he sat down in his spot across from Ricky and Gina on the floor, “truth or dare?”

Gina glanced over at the curly haired boy that had been sitting next to her. She watched him carefully as he toyed with his two options until he finally made his decision with the most upward confidence in his voice, “Dare.”

Her eyes moved back to Carlos, who held his drink tightly with a small smirk playing on his lips. She wondered what could possibly be going on inside his head. She was sure that the dare he was thinking of wasn’t harmful in any way and she was even more sure that the dare couldn’t possibly have anything to do with her—until Carlos’ playful eyes flicked to her. 

Almost immediately, she felt herself tense up. It was almost like she knew it even before the words came out of his mouth. 

“I dare you,” he started, “to kiss Gina.”

She felt Ricky tense up beside her. Gina’s eyes instantly darted over in Nini’s direction, who looked more than displeased with the dare. She looked away, and then to Ricky, who didn’t dare to look at her. 

“Oh, come on,” Ashlyn scoffed in an attempt to save her friends, “that’s _too_ easy!” 

Carlos turned back to Ashlyn, who was sitting up on the bed beside Big Red. He raised his eyebrows, “If it’s so easy, then why can’t they just do it?”

Gina felt her heart rate start to increase just thinking about kissing Ricky. In the five days they’ve been on the trip, they’ve done a lot: they’ve spent almost all of their time together, they’ve held hands, confided in each other, and even have called each other those God-awful pet names. All of which had almost successfully convinced their classmates they were an item (minus a few setbacks). But _kissing?_ It was totally out of the cards for the both of them. 

She’s always liked Carlos, but now she didn’t know if she liked him. Especially since he knew about their situation… It was all kinds of evil.

Ricky cleared his throat and forced a laugh, “Of course it’s easy… but PDA really isn’t our thing, Carlos.”

Gina knew that Ricky desperately wanted to glare daggers at Carlos but knew better not to throw more gasoline on the fire. 

“There’s not many people here.” Carlos shrugged after he looked around the room. “Anyway, it’s not PDA. It’s a dare.”

Ricky’s head turned to Gina for a moment and then turned back to the group. He opened his mouth to say something further, but Carlos met him with another comment.

“Wait, you guys _have_ kissed each other right?”

Ricky swallowed, “Yes, we have.”

“So just do it.” Carlos urged on.

“What, is this a _Nike_ commercial?” Big Red chimed in and laughed nervously. 

Gina had never kissed anyone in her life. Sure, she’s talked to a few boys in her lifetime but with her constant track record of moving from place to place, she had never gotten far enough to even explore those relationships. 

A part of her was screaming to get out of this and that she didn’t want Ricky Bowen to be her first kiss. But if they ran out refusing to kiss each other, their plan would completely blow up in their face. Nobody would believe their relationship was real if they didn’t kiss each other after Ricky had just said they’ve kissed before.

After a few more seconds of thinking, Gina decided to push the little voice in her head that was screaming _“No, don’t do it!”_ off to the side. Besides, it was just one kiss. Isn’t it about the second one that truly matters?

She turned to him and rested her hand on top of his, “ _Babe,_ ” she began, plastering a sweet smile on her face. He turned to her, his eyes wide, “what’s all the fuss about? Just kiss me.”

Ricky’s mouth fell agape and his eyes were screaming: _“What about rule #3?”_

Gina raised her eyebrows, indicating that this time was the one exception to that rule. They had absolutely no way of getting out of it.

So she squeezed her eyes shut and pushed her lips onto his messily. She felt him tense under her touch, but after a few moments, she felt him kiss her back. The way he kissed her was nervous and unsure at first, just like Gina, but then after a few moments it seemed like he melted into it. 

Ricky brought his hand up to cup her cheek gently and leaned in closer to her which only deepened the kiss further, seeming like it was an attempt to make it seem like they’ve done it before. Gina’s heart was pounding against her ribcage and she couldn’t tell if it was from the adrenaline, the eyes on them, or just the fact that she was actually kissing Ricky. And she didn’t hate it.

His lips were soft and gentle on hers and they were most certainly enough for Gina to forget where they were and the fact that they were in a room full of people. Somewhere along the way, Ricky had intertwined their fingers together. It all felt so pure and innocent and was something entirely new for Gina. 

And then she let go. Her eyes were still closed, not yet ready to let go of the feeling of kissing someone. Once she opened her eyes, Ricky was staring right back at her with his big brown eyes. She could feel his uneven breath on her skin and she wondered if he could feel hers too. Everything seemed so different. Everything felt different. 

It was like something shifted between them. Something had shifted behind his brown eyes; they were softer. A lot softer. Yet, Gina couldn’t tell what he was thinking. Their eyes were locked for a beat too long, until Gina was pulled back to reality. 

She turned her head to the group, “God,” Gina laughed breathlessly, “he just _hates_ PDA. He didn’t even want to kiss me!” 

She could feel Ricky’s eyes on her as she interacted with the rest of the group. It was a few moments until Ricky was able to react. He turned to the rest of the group and let out a seemingly forced laugh, “Yeah… uh… PDA, not my thing…”

“That was _adorable_.” Carlos sighed happily, clapping his hands together, a smirk playing on his lips. Gina wanted nothing more than to go over and slap it off his face, but refrained as she felt Ricky squeeze her hand.

Her eyes burned into Carlos’, who sat across from them with a more than satisfied smile. Gina tried to focus on how much she disliked him in that moment, but really couldn’t with the lingering thoughts of Ricky’s lips in the back of her mind. 

“Ricky…” Nini said after a minute. Gina felt her stomach twist as she looked up at his ex-girlfriend. What could she possibly have to say?

He glanced over at her, “Uh, yeah?”

“It’s your turn.” She replied, leaning into Elias ever-so slightly. 

Gina narrowed her eyes. After a moment Ricky cleared his throat, “Uh… yeah, right. Um, Red, truth or dare?”

Big Red sat up straight, “Um… truth.”

“Where’s the worst place you got caught smoking a joint?”

“Oh how I love this story,” Red mused, “it was Freshman year, I was in the corner of the library – you know, the anime and manga section obviously, and I was just really feeling like I wanted to get high. So, I just lit one, not a thought up there in my mind.”

Gina felt Ricky laugh lightly next to her. She turned her head slightly to the right, trying to see more of him out of her peripheral.

“So, anyway, I’m reading some manga and Mazzara came stomping over and caught me in broad daylight. And without a single care in the world, my high told me to wink at him.”

“You winked at him?” Seb covered his mouth in surprise.

“Yup. Got suspended and had to take a class on drugs and alcohol. What a time.”

“Did you ever get caught again?” Elias asked curiously.

Big Red shrugged, “Nah. Ricky and I ended up finding the right times and places where we won’t get caught. Ah, Ashlyn! Truth or dare?”

“Dare.”

“I dare you to… do a freestyle rap right here, right now.”

As Ashlyn gladly accepted the dare and their classmates were laughing hysterically, Gina pretended to be listening and paying attention but her mind was still whirling over the kiss that she had shared with Ricky moments ago. She tried to ignore the fact that he had been eerily quiet ever since he had asked Big Red about the worst place he’d been caught smoking. 

She looked down at her lap, where her fingers were still firmly intertwined with his, and she suddenly felt her cheeks start to burn and her stomach twist once again. She could still feel the trace of his lips on hers and it made her dizzy. It had to be the fact that it was her first kiss… right? Why else would she be feeling this way? 

Gina swallowed and looked up, her eyes instantly meeting EJ’s who had been looking at her already. He knew it was her first kiss and he most definitely knew something was up with her. 

She sent him a small smile and then averted her eyes to Natalie, who was currently talking about the worst day of her life when she dropped her hamster in the toilet. Gina couldn’t care less about Natalie and her hamster, nor what anyone else had to say. The only thing she could think of was Ricky.

“…Gina.”

She looked up at who was calling her name. It was Natalie. 

“Truth or dare?”

She wasn’t about to do a dare, though Natalie was harmless, she just didn’t have the energy, “Truth.”

“What is your favorite thing about being with Ricky?”

Does everything have to be about him? Gina let out a small laugh and then looked over at Ricky, who had already been looking back at her. His brows were raised with curiosity.

“Well,” she started, “I really like the way that I can be truly and completely myself around him.”

A small smile started to creep on his lips, causing the heat to rise to Gina’s cheeks. She tore her eyes away from him and looked towards Natalie, who had the warmest smile on her face.

“That’s the cutest thing I’ve ever heard.” Natalie raised her hand and patted her chest.

Gina let out an awkward laugh, suddenly itching to get out from underneath everyone’s gaze, especially Ricky’s. She looked around the room, “Um, EJ. Truth or dare?”

“Truth.” He shrugged.

She bit down on her lip for a moment, “Who do you think is the most beautiful person in this room?”

He sent her a subtle glare while she smiled back at him. He let out a deep breath and pretended to think about it, “Hands down miss Kourtney Greene.”

The room went silent for a moment, and EJ’s face got visibly red. He turned his face to look at Kourtney who looked up at him, her smile growing bigger by the second, “Really?”

“Yeah.”

“Awww!” Nini gushed, covering her cheeks as she looked at the love stricken teenagers.

EJ looked away from Kourtney and rubbed his neck nervously, “Uh… Elias. Truth or dare?”

“Um… dare.”

“Alright, tell an embarrassing story about yourself.”

“So just a few weeks ago, actually, I had to get an Uber home from practice because my car was in the shop. Well anyway, my Uber had told me they were there… so I got into the back of a car with the same make and model of my Uber driver and it wasn’t my Uber driver…” he laughed. “It was this poor old lady, she had no idea what I was doing. I wanted to cry. I felt so bad.”

Gina heard Ricky stifle a laugh beside her. She pressed her lips in a thin line, trying her best not to laugh either.

“Babe, oh my gosh, you didn’t tell me that!” Nini grasped his bicep, causing Gina to frown. 

But she didn’t think it was because she was jealous of Nini. More because she knew that something as little as that would bother Ricky to no end. She pushed that thought out of her head. Shouldn't she be jealous of Nini because she has a crush on Elias? Why is everything so backward tonight?

The rest of the night went by painfully slow. They played truth or dare for another 45 minutes. Ricky and Gina had barely interacted the remainder of the party, only when they were both involved in a truth or dare or they had to keep their fake-couple act up.

The party had finally ended around about 1am, when everyone decided that they should get going before the chaperones found anything out. Ricky and Gina didn’t even bother saying goodbye to Carlos—he’d be hearing from them tomorrow.

After Gina had hugged EJ goodnight, she left with Big Red, Ashlyn, and Ricky. Everyone was silent as they walked down the hall to the elevator, the events of the night on everyone’s mind. 

While they were in the elevator, Big Red clicked his tongue, laughing nervously, “I can’t wait to sleep.”

Ricky and Gina both mumbled incoherent responses. They stood at opposite sides of the elevator, with almost too much space between them. Gina desperately wanted to go to her room.

“I know. I’m tired as hell.” Ashlyn agreed, rocking on her heels.

Finally, the doors opened to Ashlyn and Gina’s floor. Ashlyn bid the boys goodnight as they both walked out on the floor.

Gina looked back at the boys and sent them both an awkward smile, her eyes lingering on Ricky for a moment, “Night, guys.”

“Goooodnight!” Red said cheerfully.

Ricky inhaled, “Night, Gina.”

And then the doors closed.

Once they got back to their room, a strangely quiet Gina had decided to go right into the bathroom and splash some water on her face as an attempt to knock herself out of whatever trance she was in. 

She stared at herself in the mirror for a few moments. This was so unlike her. Yes, she was secretly a hopeless romantic and dreamed of her first kiss, but she never thought it would have _this_ affect on her. 

She lifted herself from the counter and got herself cleaned up for the night. After she was done, she left the bathroom. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ashlyn asked softly as Gina walked out of the bathroom.

“Talk about what?” She knew what.

“The fact that you and Ricky kissed tonight. And… it was your first kiss?”

Gina swallowed and began to distract herself with the items in her backpack, “It’s fine. It was either kiss him or get exposed—there really wasn’t another option.”

She grabbed her headphones from her backpack and began untangling the wires as an attempt to occupy herself. Ashlyn was taking too long to respond and it was making Gina be on edge.

“You sure?” Her best friend asked. “Gi, I know you’re a good actress and you’re fine with pushing things down… but I’m here to talk if you need to.”

She stopped fiddling with the headphones for a second. Gina felt different but she didn’t know how she could possibly explain it to Ashlyn. She didn’t even know how she was feeling.

“And if you felt anything… you know that’s okay, right?”

She dropped her headphones onto the desk. She turned around to face the redhead, who was sitting on the bed with a look of concern on her face, “ _Feel anything?_ Ash, are you crazy?”

Ashlyn’s lips parted, “Well, you just seemed so quiet and not like yourself after it happens so I thought maybe–”

Gina laughed, “No, no… I was a little stressed out that I had just had my first kiss and it was with Ricky, of all people… and under that kind of circumstance in front of a bunch of people, you know?”

She nodded her head slowly, processing Gina’s words, “Yeah. That makes sense.”

“Ash,” Gina started, sitting down on the opposite bed, “I _promise_ you that I didn’t feel anything other than awkward and weird. I mean, come on, Ricky is… well, Ricky. He’s just a friend.”

Ashlyn stared right into her eyes, as if she was trying to detect a lie, but eventually was unable to find one. Gina hoped that she sounded believable because she would rather jump off a cliff than admit that she felt something real while kissing Ricky.

After a moment, the redhead nodded, “Okay. I believe you.”

Gina smiled at her friend, feeling a sense of triumph wash over her, “Let’s just hope I don’t have to kiss him again.”

“I cannot believe that Carlos did that to you two.”

The curly haired girl shook her head, “You know, I used to not mind him but after spending this whole trip with him… he’s like a pest you can’t get rid of. Especially since he knows about Ricky and me.”

“He’s not going to let it down either.” Ashlyn said, climbing into bed.

“I know.” Gina said softly and then a yawn escaped past her lips. “We should get some sleep.”

Ashlyn agreed, “Yeah… we should. It’s crazy how we’re already headed for Prague tomorrow.”

Gina fell back onto the bed, “I know. This trip is going by so fast.”

After a minute, Ashlyn flipped the light switch off, “Well, night, Gi.”

“Night, Ash.” Gina said as she pulled the covers over her body. She grabbed her phone once she was settled in and texted her mom:

_**Night Mama. I’ll send you pics in the morning <3** _

After she had sent her text, she moved on to Instagram. She scrolled through the various posts from celebrities, her classmates and even positive motivation quotes. She was reading one of the positive quotes when she got a notification that said she was tagged in a post. 

She clicked on the notification and it brought her to a photo posted by Ricky. It was the one of them standing in front of the dinosaur skeleton back in London, where Gina had kissed him on the cheek. Though it was only two days ago, it seems like forever ago. 

The caption read: You make my heart saur! ❤️

A smile played in her lips. The familiar warm feeling had entered her stomach again. She pushed it back and commented: You’re a dork ❤️

After a minute of staring at the photo, Gina returned back to looking at her feed. While she browsed, she let her mind wander back at the events of that night. One thing had been repeating in her mind ever since it had happened: They kissed. Ricky was her first kiss. 

She remembered the feeling and basked in it for a moment. She wondered what it would be like to actually kiss someone that she loved and if it would be anything like the one she shared with Ricky.

And then she wondered what it felt like _for_ Ricky. Did he feel extremely weird about it too? Did he feel half of what she felt? Did it mean anything to him at all? Is it going to ruin their friendship?

She sighed and told herself to stop worrying. It was just Ricky and they’d be the same Ricky and Gina that they’ve always been in the morning. 

Before Gina was about to turn her phone off for the night and be alone with her thoughts, she received a text message from the boy that’s been clouding her thoughts:

**Night 🍯-🧈-🥐**

A laugh escaped past her lips. She started typing.

**That’s a croissant. Not a biscuit.**

**Hey they don’t have a biscuit emoji!**

**Night, Bowen.**


End file.
